Elements of War
by Bico
Summary: A crossover/fusion of the worlds of Naruto and Avatar. As they begin their travels to find Aang an earthbending teacher, what will Aang's group do when they find themselves on the run from Fire Nation ninja?
1. History Lesson

**Elements of War**

**Forward: This newest work is meant to be a fusion of the worlds of Avatar: The Last Airbender and Naruto. As you can see in this prologue, I make an attempt to link the two worlds starting all the way back to the beginning. The time period this starts out in is somewhere in the few weeks between the last chapter of Book 1 and the first chapter of Book 2 for Avatar, and around a month before the beginning of part 2 of Naruto. As this is a fairly complete fusion, certain things within the individual stories up till this point are different, but not so much that it effects the story. For instance, there is no television or refridgerators in the ninja villages, though they may have somewhat more advanced tech than the nations at large. This does not effect things too much, however. Other things may need to be explained, for instance, why is Haku so special now that we've introduced bending into the equation. All waterbenders can turn water to ice. However, I've also eliminated the ability for ninja to use more than one of the four basic elements (what this means for the Kakashi/Zabuza fight will be explained in story), so Haku's kekkei genkai changes from simply being able to fuse the wind and water techniques into one to being able to use both elements at all. Again, why there are those who can use more than one element will hopefully be adequately explained later on down the line. Lastly, I'd just like to express my thanks to Mr. Kishimoto for the story of Naruto as well as Mike and Bryan, the creators of Avatar, for their creation. I obviously do not have any claim to these properties, though admitting that hardly exempts me from legal recourse, though I doubt anyone will care.**

**Chapter 00  
History Lesson**

_Qin Qi Shuhua_

_Scholar_

_Long ago, before the Divine Spirit descended upon the mortal world in human form, there was only one nation, instead of merely the Earth and Wind Tribes, and the kingdoms of Water and Fire. Before the Avatar, all people of all worlds could bend a fifth element no longer available to humankind and there were no non twisters, for all of us possessed the power of Spirit._

_This changed when humankind came upon the corporeal forms of the Gods. Tui of the Sea and La of the Moon, in the form of fish, taught the tribes at the North Pole how to twist the waters to their liking. Agni took the form of a dragon and taught the people of the Western Continent the ways of the sun. Likewise, Susano'o took the form of a bison and traveled the world, teaching peoples from the different cultures the art of windsnaring. Kishar, in the form of a badger-mole, taught the people of the kingdom of Omashu._

_At first, the people rejoiced at these gifts, but then when each culture saw that the others had received different gifts, they became jealous of each other and began to war with each other. Eventually, a group of ten people from around the world gathered together and journeyed into the Spirit World to seek a spirit who could help them. They asked many spirits, but none knew how to stop humanity from destroying itself, and not many cared to try. It was their own fault, they thought, for abusing the gifts the spirits had brought them._

_However, one day they came across a powerful and wise spirit and knew that this being could help them. They begged and pleaded that the spirit would come with them to the mortal world and stop the endless wars. The spirit said that he would not leave his home for them, but would train them, provided they could offer a worthy sacrifice. The leader of the group immediately fell on his sword, giving his life to the spirit. Therefore, the spirit became the nine remaining mortals' master and for one hundred years, he taught them his secrets._

_When the nine returned to the mortal world, they were no longer mere mortals. They traveled the world, defeating the armies and forcing peace among the various tribes. They were praised for their heroic deeds and became kings and queens among the people. However, soon the nine themselves became jealous and tainted by power. The priest, Shukaku, challenged the strongest of them, Ono, to a duel right away. Ono beat Shukaku soundly and exiled him to the desert, where he died of thirst. However, his spirit had become so strong, and his soul so wicked, that the sand around his dead body took the shape of a racoon-dog and began to ravage the peoples of the desert._

_After another hundred years, Bast was burned alive after a great coup, and the flames of the pyre became a raging cat. One hundred years after that, Xuan Wu was killed in battle, and his body thrown into the sea, where his spirit took the form of a dragon-tortoise. Over the next four hundred years, the rulers died, until finally, eight hundred years after they had originally undertook their mission, the world was divided between Ono and Listrik-sapi. The two had warred on each other since they had jointly destroyed their mutual enemy, Septima. Ono was too powerful for Listrik-sapi to overcome, however, and the red haired ruler's armies descended upon his northern castle, and Ono defeated him personally before having him quartered. Then there was only one ruler of the world._

_One day, Ono found a woman in a forest near his palace and fell in love with her beauty. He took her and made her one of his many concubines, and with her fathered a child named Genryu. The child grew to become a strong warrior, and Ono decided to send him on a quest to subdue the wild beasts his old friends had become. Ono waited for his son for a long time, nearly losing hope that his son would accomplish his mission. However, he soon heard that the beasts' appearances had ceased, and soon after his son returned. He had changed much in his travels: his body had been pierced, his temperament had been cooled, and his eyes burned like hot embers._

_Genryu recounted his tale of the six realms of the world where he had met his past lives. He told his father that he had brought them back to the human realm, and then they appeared before him. Ono was shocked and called for his army to help him, but his son's mother restrained him._

_She revealed to him then that she was his old teacher, and had decided to come to correct her mistake. Their son was the last of a series of reincarnations, whose original form Ono recognized as a man who had sacrificed his life for their sake. His old master stood before him, as well as a tortured creature from Hell, a wraith from the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, a beast that Ono had trained himself as an entertaining means of execution, and a demon that he had crossed paths with before._

_Ono, enraged, shed his mortal form and became a nine tailed demon fox. The six incarnations of Genryu and Ono's lover fought him fiercely, and in the end he was also sealed, but not before casting a poisonous blow upon the woman who was his teacher._

_As Genryu's mother lay dying, she felt regret that she had used her son as a tool. As the spirit had lived as a human, she had become more and more like them, and now was the first time she felt the true pang of loss. She wished that she could have understood humanity better, but her life was at an end. Genryu, however, heeding his filial duty, plucked her soul from the wind and caused it to be reborn back into the human realm as a true mortal, ignorant of her past life as a deity, so that she might have her wish._

_Genryu, meanwhile,_

Gaara replaced the scroll on the shelf. The rest of the ancient manuscript had been burned away long ago. However, he could hardly believe what revelations could be made into the past with the reading of a few passages from any of these scrolls. He was glad that he had come to the library. He picked up another scroll, this one more recent.

_Yangchen_

_Avatar_

_One hundred years ago the thought that there might be those who could still Spiritbend was ludicrous. However, recent discoveries have led us at the Eastern Air Temple to believe that there may be some truth to this. My comrades and I recently captured a group of assassins attempting to murder a local official in a nearby Earth Kingdom town. During the pursuit, some of us succumbed to a mass hallucination. I also nearly succumbed, but for the fact that my Avatar mentor seemed to speak to me in my head, which disrupted the illusion. This fact, combined with the discovery of no hallucinogenic powders in the area, lead me to believe this was induced by a form of Spiritbending._

_Furthermore, one member of the group attacked trapped one of our numbers seemingly by extending his shadow. Another could Earthbend without seeming to deliver a strike while the other could Firebend by the same manner. In lieu of actual strikes, they seemed to summon their abilities by a form of hand signals._

_We know that somehow the knowledge of Spiritbending was lost to all but the Avatars, and that in only the most crude form. However, it seems as if clans of Spiritbenders have appeared in the various nations, and while some seem to possess the ability to bend the classic four elements, it seems to be in addition to Spiritbending, thus implying that all benders have this as a common link; an element that binds all humanity as one. After questioning the "shinobi," as they call themselves, the only thing we know about the source of this rediscovery of the elusive fifth element is its name: "Rikkudo Sen'nin," or "Sage of the Six Paths."_

Gaara stopped reading the scroll there. It seemed odd now that at one time the ninja were truly hidden from society. Some did not even believe that the ninja existed, but that changed after those who used chakra energy, otherwise known as Spiritbending, were proven to exist, and the evolution of the ninja into what they were today began.

Of course, even as recently as one hundred years ago the ninja were heavily fragmented into secretive clans, and many were able to conceal their knowledge of the ninja arts from the world. However, when the war started, Fire Lord Sozin wanted all of his available countrymen involved. That was why he became the patron of the most powerful ninja clans, and helped organize the various clans into a single entity, founding an entire village based on nindo.

Gaara grimaced. His own village, much like the others, was based on this model in response to the deadly effectiveness of the huge Hidden Leaf organization. His great grandparents had been fully fledged Air Nomads, and his grandfather, one of the few trainees to escape the initial attack that wiped out the majority of the Airbenders, helped found the Village Hidden in the Sand as an organization dedicated to revenge on the Fire Nation and the Hidden Leaf.

The young Wind Shadow recalled the most recent attempt at revenge, when his father the Fourth had allied with the Sound to destroy it. He was particularly interested in destroying the last of the Uchiha, as it had been a man named Uchiha Madara who had finally killed the First Kazekage. However, now it was possible for the Sand and Leaf to truly live in peace, even as the war between the nations raged on. After all, the Fifth Kazekage would never harm the man who brought meaning to his life, the man who would become the Hokage of the Leaf.

"I trust you are finding everything alright?"

Gaara was broken out of his reverie by the interruption and he turned to face the curious owl spirit, Wan Shi Tong, who ran the library. "Yes, thank you. It's too bad that the wing about Fire Nation history has been destroyed, though. I would be curious to read of it."

"Yes... it is unfortunate. I've found that all too often humans seek only to abuse knowledge for their own benefit in their petty conflicts. I am glad to meet anyone who truly wants to learn."

"I am glad to learn," Gaara said. "I have a lot of learning to do if I am to become a good... human being."


	2. Rogues

**Elements of War**

**Chapter 01  
Rogues**

Fire Lord Ozai sat stiffly examining the parchment before him. Here was a report from the front lines, and the news contained within was not pleasing. The siege on the Northern Water Tribe was a failure. His most loyal admiral was dead. His own son was reported to be Zhao's murderer, tossing him into the angry sea. His older brother, of course, had a very large hand in this. He pondered the question of his traitorous relatives. He would prefer to keep this particular family squabble in-house. Sending Azula, his more talented and, more importantly, more loyal child to bring them in for questioning would be best. He knew without a doubt, of course, that Iroh was a traitor. After all, he surely knew Ozai had usurped his throne and connived to take it back. He may have influenced his son, manipulated him into this foolish action. If this was the case, perhaps he could convince young Zuko of the error of his ways. Once Zuko had learned his lesson, Ozai would welcome his son back. After all, Zuko had defeated a master, even if he was merely a second rate one, so perhaps he was not quite as useless as he had thought.

Ozai scowled. There was another problem, though. It was reported that waterbenders were not the only opposing troops at the North Pole. There were apparently several squads of _those_ people there. He grimaced at the thought. While his grandfather had been quite enthusiastic in uniting their tribes and using them against the other nations, his father had realized the danger in utilizing such wild cards. He had discontinued the practice several years before his unfortunate demise, letting the village of weird mystics live in peace, separate from his nation's war. He had brokered a treaty which would prevent the five major villages from attacking each other or their patron nations. This, however, was troublesome. If the Avatar could bring the other major villages to break the treaty, even the power of Sozin's Comet would not make it an easy battle.

"This is most likely nothing to be concerned about," one of the generals in the war room commented, interrupting his internal reverie. "After all," he reasoned, "The Air Nation's rogue village broke the treaty once before, hoping that by destroying our own hidden village they would garner favor—and work—among the nations. It was taken care of without us having to lift a finger."

"Was that not instigated by one of our village's own? A rogue?" another advisor responded. "That snake even impersonated the Air Nation village's leader. A truly devious trick..."

Ozai smirked. "Yes... if there is one thing you can be certain of... it is that you can never trust a ninja."

- - -

Katara walked softly and soundlessly on the crisp polar snow, glowing in the pale moonlight. She had been training in the morning with Master Pakku for weeks, now, and had all but mastered the basics of waterbending. During the evening, though, she was in for a wholly different form of training. Her friends and she had come across the ninja not long before they had found the Northern Water Tribe. After a brief skirmish, the water ninja had agreed to bring them to the city. Katara had been lucky, as well, for the leader of the group they had encountered was also the granddaughter of the leader of the hidden village of ninja, the Water Shadow. When Pakku refused to train her, the Mizukage himself came at his daughter's behest to train her in the ways of the ninja hidden in the mist. She learned enough then to surprise Pakku greatly when she confronted him again, though he still managed to defeat her.

She caught a shadow in the periphery of her vision and she shimmied to the side, dodging a shuriken. While she was now officially a student of Master Pakku, her training with the Mizukage and his daughter had intrigued her enough to take on two forms of training at once. Now she was in the middle of a characteristically bloody training session. But she had learned well. She used her water affinity to throw up a veil of lace, maneuvering about her opponents, all adept ninja. While a few shuriken managed to gouge her flesh, she managed to avoid the watery bullets that were slightly more lethal. Finally, in the course of battle, she saw Tenko, the Mizukage's granddaughter, come at her with a long, double serrated blade. She dodged. She parried with her hand against the flat of the sword. There was another quick slash and she once again clouded her surroundings with sparkling diamonds.

Tenko caught sight of Katara again as she dove from her protective cover, coming at her with daggers of ice. The kunoichi dodged the icicles thrown at her and thrust her blade into Katara's side, impaling her. Her clothing around the wound became wet... with water. "So... finally mastered the Mizu Bunshin, eh?" She heard the southern girl emerge from the snow, felt icy projectiles whistling toward her, but knew her teammates had everything under control.

A wall of flame surrounded Tenko, melting the ice as it passed through. She was fortunate to have a ninja on her team with fire affinity, quite rare in the Mist Village. Her other teammate tried to ensnare the girl, but she was quick. Tenko watched as her two comrades struggled with the girl. She was relying heavily on waterbending techniques, but she had certainly learned enough ninjutsu to qualify as a genin. However, she could see that the girl was wearing down and the two chunin were quickly gaining the upper hand.

"That's enough," came a gruff voice from the darkness. It was Tenko's father, the Water Shadow of the Hidden Mist Village. He peered out at her from the deep shadow behind the veil that hid his face. "You have done well this night, Katara," he praised her. "For a beginner to hold her own so long against three chunin is prodigious."

"Thank you, Master Mizukage," the girl said.

"You are leaving soon with the Avatar," the Mizukage stated. "I have something for you." He removed a scroll from his robe. "These are more advanced techniques for you to study. You will study these as you travel. They will be of much help on your journey, I feel."

Katara bowed to him. "Thank you, Master."

Meanwhile, in a small village in the northern Earth Kingdom, two travelers strode through a dirt street. Both agreed the place seemed like a good spot to rest for a few days. The villagers seemed unusually confident and content, unflinching even from vicious animals. Though they certainly raised an eyebrow at the man in the loud red shoes, they were hardly the men to talk to concerning fashion.

"Don't feel too bad, Naruto," the old man said. "You've made some great progress in your training, even if you weren't able to fully master the kyuubi."

"Yeah," Naruto replied. "I wish I could have stayed at the Eastern Air Temple to finish, but at least I don't have to drink onion and banana juice every day."

"Yeah, I know," the older man agreed. "I never would have thought when we went there that we'd find..." he paused as he caught sight of a short old woman.

"Would you like your fortune told, handsome?" she asked the white haired traveler as she stood in front of a lavish house.

The older man laughed and said, "Lady, I already know my future, and from a very reliable source. I'd rather not hear it again." The man patted his young, blond companion on the head. "How about you, Naruto?"

"Che, I dunno, pervy sage," the young man said. "You believe in that stuff? I think I'd rather shape my own destiny."

"You _can_ shape your own destiny," the old woman said. "For the most part. But it's nice to know what might be up ahead. Maybe there's a girl in your life you might want to know more about?" the fortuneteller asked coyly.

"Oh, boy," Naruto exclaimed. "You can tell me about... about..." he trailed off. "Ummm... I mean, yeah... I guess that might be interesting."

"Come in," the fortuneteller said. "My name is Wu, by the way, but everyone calls me 'Aunt Wu.'"

"Naruto," the blond boy gestured to himself, and then he pointed a thumb at his older traveling companion. "And this is the perverted sage."

The older man cleared his throat loudly and interjected, "That's Jiraiya, the Toad Sage."

"Yes, well..." Aunt Wu continued, taking an urn filled with bones once they were inside the fortuneteller's inner chamber. "Here, this is the most reliable method. Cast one of these bones into the fire, and the heat will cause it to crack. I will then interpret the meaning of these cracks."

"Ummm," Naruto started hesitantly, still not exactly convinced. "Okay..." he took a nice, thick bone and threw it into the fire. In a few moments, a large fissure opened up down the center of the bone. The young man jumped at the loud pop. "Wow that was a big crack." As he finished his statement, the bone responded by exploding into myriad tiny pieces. "Holy—!"

"Ahh," Jiraiya interrupted. "Is... that supposed to happen?"

Aunt Wu wore a shocked expression, her hand placed over her heart. "This... this is..." she clapped her hand to her forehead. "An incredible coincidence!" She sighed and began to recite her prediction as if she had said it a million times before. "You will be involved in a great battle; an awesome conflict between the forces of good and evil, a battle whose outcome will determine the fate of the whole world."

"Oh," Naruto said. "Wow. But, um... I don't suppose you have anything in there about a girl, do you?"

Aunt Wu frowned. "I don't suppose you have any bald, airbending friends, do you?" Naruto shook his head. "Hmm. Well, I didn't see anything about a girl. I'd suggest you trust your own heart in matters of that sort. However," she picked up a larger chunk of bone. "I can tell you that your current journey must soon come to an end. You should go home as quickly as you can."

The two travelers looked at each other. "Well, we were planning on heading that way," Jiraiya said. "And I'm not one to question fate. I guess we can pick up our pace a bit."

In a hidden base in the former Rice Field country, a hawk landed deftly on a perch outside the window of a fortress carved in the side of a mountain. A ninja handler took the bird and removed from it a note. Looking it over, he gasped and turned to dash toward his master's lair.

Orochimaru stood with his young apprentice and instructed him on the finer points of shaping lightning jutsu when the Sound ninja barged in. "You!" he hissed. "What is the meaning of this interruption?"

"Lord Orochimaru," the subordinate demurred. "A message has come for you. It's... from the Fire Lord!"

The snake ninja's interest was caught. He knew the Fire Nation government had officially washed its hands of the ninja community almost sixteen years ago. Now the Hidden Leaf Village was mostly used discreetly by individual clients in the Fire Nation and abroad. However, Orochimaru realized that smaller ninja organizations were not bound by the treaty between the villages. That had to be the reason the Fire Lord was contacting an S-class criminal.

He took the parchment and read over it. Ozai wanted to hire him as backup for his little princess, apparently, as she went to apprehend the former crown prince Iroh and the errant prince Zuko. He pondered. "I see... there are other ninja involved in this. The normal bender is at a disadvantage when ambushed by a skilled squad of ninja... unless there is someone there who can spot any traps laid."

Sasuke looked over Orochimaru's shoulder at the note. "The pay is comparable to an A-class mission."

Orochimaru scoffed. "It's far too little. Any mission that involves Iroh is easily S-class. Before Azulon banned ninja from participating in the war, I fought alongside him. He was fierce and cunning... enough to take down the Earth Shadow and his black ops group." Orochimaru grimaced. "Granted... he had the support of the Sannin of Konoha at the time..."

"It sounds like a difficult mission," Sasuke determined. "And good training. I'm tired of being cooped up in one hideout after another. I think I would like to sharpen my skills in real combat situations before I... complete my true mission."

"Hmm." The snake ninja looked amused. "I believe you're right, Sasuke. It would be good for you to have more first-hand experience." He gestured to Kabuto, who had been sitting off to the side in the shadows, as was his usual preference. "Get ready. We shall meet our princess in four days."

- - -

Azula waited patiently aboard her ship. She had come into the harbor early in the day where her brother and uncle were reported to be hiding. She should have guessed that the fat, lazy oaf would seek refuge in a spa. She would soon go to see Zuko, convincing him that their father wanted him to come home. That was no lie, but she had chosen not to reveal the real reason behind the Fire Lord's "change of heart." She would allow him to believe what he so desperately wanted: that he would go home to a loving father and take his place at his side as the crown prince of the Fire Nation. He might indeed still reattain his place as the next Fire Lord, and she would be happy for him (after all, he was certainly manipulable enough that she would practically be ruler herself, without having to trouble herself with dealing with assassination attempts). However, he would be in for a rude shock when he arrived and found himself in an interrogation cell. She smirked. It was cute when Zuzu squirmed.

Those ninja, though! She couldn't believe her father had hired ninja to hog the fun. Not only that, it was almost sundown and they weren't even there yet. She had received the message from them that they would be waiting for her when she came into port, but they had the audacity to stand her up. "I'm tired of standing around," she decided. Dismissing the guards, she stood at the center of the open deck. Under the watchful eyes of her twin teachers, Lo and Li, she began the movements for her basic lightning technique. She crackled with power as she felt the imbalance of energy build within her. She then unleashed it and the arc of electricity left her fingers, soaring into the sky as a thunderclap reverberated across the ocean.

"Almost perfect," one of her teachers said.

"One hair out of place," the other added. She could see the offending hair right between her eyes. Imperfection! She could not abide by it.

"Almost isn't good enough," she grimaced.

"Perhaps she should be shown how it is done," the other old woman—she thought it might be Lo, though she could never quite tell—rasped. "Come here, child."

"What?" Azula shouted. "What are you talking about? I don't need to be shown like a child. Besides, you two can't actually firebend. I will just try again!" Nonetheless, their glares cowed her enough that she reluctantly ambled up to them. "So? What is it you're going to show me?" Suddenly, she found herself in the coils of a large, powerful snake, its scales rasping against her cheek. The serpent seemed to be coming from Lo's mouth, and Li pulled what looked like a scalpel and held it to her throat. "What is the meaning of this?!" she growled as she struggled to free herself.

The snake slowly turned the princess about and she saw one of her royal guards further down the deck where she had been standing, facing her. "A demonstration, Princess Azula," Li said smoothly. The guard, meanwhile, began her lightning kata, mimicking it perfectly. In fact, it was indeed even more perfect than she had been able to manage. Energy poured from him as his own imbalance built; Azula could feel her hair standing on end and a strange nauseated feeling in the pit of her stomach wash over her. He struck. Azula's world was bathed in white. She heard the loud roar of the ocean in her ears. Or was it a crackling campfire? She felt pins, needles, and broken glass all over her body, but she didn't scream. She wouldn't look away, either, though at what she was even looking she could no longer say. She was not such a weakling that she couldn't take what she dished out, regardless.

After several more seconds of remaining conscious, she realized that the white light which had blinded her seemed to have faded to a smaller glow in the center of her vision. After a few moments more, she realized what was happening. The lightning, as impossible as it seemed, had stopped inches from her face. The arc was, in fact, trapped in a current created by the armored man's own physically manifested spiritual energy.

"One should never underestimate a ninja," Li said in a suddenly more masculine and youthful voice. Azula glanced to her side as the arc of electricity dissipated to see the old woman peeling off her face. She looked to her other side and saw Lo doing something similar, revealing a pale, serpentine face and onyx black hair. The armored guard removed his helmet, revealing a young man about her own age with raven hair and eyes more cold and lethal than any she'd seen outside a mirror.

The ship's captain suddenly ran onto the deck. "Princess, I found your teachers and one of your guards knocked out and disrobed! I think we may have some..." his deductive statement trailed off as he saw Orochimaru and Kabuto with Azula, still with a large snake wrapped around her, and an unfamiliar boy in a royal guard outfit. He immediately went on the offensive, leaping toward the nearest imposter, the spiky haired boy, launching precision fireballs all the while.

Sasuke didn't lift a foot as he easily dodged the flames, and when the captain came close in for a physical strike, the young nukenin caught his fist, squeezing hard enough to evoke a wince of pain from the man, and twisted his arm before landing his knee in the older man's gut. The captain squeaked a little before passing out still perched on the boy's knee.

"My, my," Orochimaru said. "Quite the detective he was. Sasuke, weren't you the one who was to dispose of our doubles? You should have just thrown them overboard."

Sasuke grabbed the captain's helmet as he let him fall to the deck. "I like this," he said, putting the captain's helm upon his head. "I think I'll be captain for now."

"Well," Azula said, calmly, her composure regained. "You must be the ninja lackeys my father called for…"

"This is Lord Orochimaru," Kabuto introduced. "And I am Kabuto, his... doctor." He gestured to the young man now garbed as captain. "This is Sasuke, youngest of the two remaining Uchiha."

Azula remembered hearing of the Uchiha clan. Her great grandfather had been a bit supporter of their leader, Madara, before they were made subservient to the Senju of the Forest when the various clans joined together under Fire Lord Sozin's banner. She also knew they had a special trait that allowed them to copy any movement they saw. Some even said that they could see the future, though she certainly didn't buy into that nonsense. "So... since we're allies, would you mind letting me down?" she said in a faux-sweet voice.

The serpent unwound itself from the princess, and she stepped away from her former captors, her body now on high alert in case they tried anything again. She turned to Sasuke. "Alright, you can play captain, if you want to," she told him. "But first you'll have to practice with me."

The boy looked toward Orochimaru who nodded imperceptibly, and he joined her in the middle of the deck. "I'm happy to help you."

Azula scoffed as she began the movement of her lightning technique. "Don't be ridiculous. I'm helping you." The young ninja supposed, in a way, she was right about that.

And thus the ninja spent the rest of the evening training with Azula. The next day the three staked out the spa as the princess baited the two men with promises of forgiveness. The older one, they could see, was suspicious of the tale, and told his nephew as much once Azula had left, but the young prince seemed quite eager to swallow the story. Ultimately, the next day the two were on their way to the ship.

"Brother! Uncle!" Azula greeted the two as they approached. Iroh was still suspicious, Sasuke could see. He eyed the soldiers lined up on either side of them as if preparing for an ambush. The Uchiha wondered if he had come across ninja before, though from his age and reputation, he had most likely fought with them back when the leaf ninja were still Sozin's pet assassins. The old general brought his eyes to him and he could see his suspicion deepen. Understandable. He had taken no precaution to disguise himself, and seeing a fifteen year old captain must have been incredulous. "Welcome," Azula continued. "I'm so glad you decided to come."

"Ready to depart, Your Highness?" Sasuke asked.

Azula smiled pleasantly. "Set our course for _home_... Captain."

"You heard the princess," he called to the other soldiers. The two unwitting prisoners ascended the ramp behind him. "Raise anchors. We are taking our guests home."

Once the procession was completely aboard, they lifted the ramp and began to move away from the port. As they left, the gray haired firebender was still alert for any treachery. "Greetings, General," a person dressed in noble robes said from Iroh's side. "I see you've gotten much fatter since our last mission together." This was the sign he was looking for, he realized as he turned his head to look into familiar golden, snake-slitted eyes. "Shinobi!" he gasped, "It's a trap!" and his body was in instant motion.

Orochimaru leaped out of the way of the surprisingly quick attack from Iroh. His hands blurred as he shaped a ninjutsu. He pursed his lips and flamed shot out of his mouth.

Iroh realized right away the flame was too powerful for his normal attacks to work, so he worked his hands in an identical manner and exhaled, combining his normal dragon's breath firebending technique with the fire chakra energy that flowed from his gut, creating a fireball that rivaled Orochimaru's. The attacks collided, creating a beautifully violent blossom of light.

Zuko had already lunged at his little sister, his mouth curled in rage. "You lied to me!"

"As if I've never done _that_ before," she quipped as she dodged the flame daggers with which her older brother lashed at her. She easily caught his arms and kicked him back. "Oh, Sasuke, I'm already bored. Would you mind?"

Zuko angrily flailed at her again, but this time the young captain caught his arm. "Chidori Nagashi," he whispered into his ear, and the young man was stricken. It felt as if fire was flowing through his veins and gushing from his pores. He stumbled back. Sasuke drew his sword and slashed at the queued teen. Zuko dodged the lightning quick slashes, but as he ducked the blade cleanly lopped off his hair, almost down to bare skin. Putting a hand to his head in shock at the loss of an important piece of his body, he next found the tip of the blade gouging into his cheek. He fell back, again precariously off balance.

Sasuke pressed his advantage, using his great speed to dash behind the firebender. "You're finished," he said as his blade cut its path toward Zuko's side, intent on running him through his gut.

A stream of flame boiled behind Zuko, taking the ninja with it. The prince turned toward the source, his uncle who had fended off the disabling blow as he was fighting off a squad of soldiers as well as a master ninja. Then he looked toward its victim, the carcass engulfed in flames. But then as the flames diminished, he realized that it was nothing but a large post with rope coiled around it.

Sasuke hit the deck, unsinged and eyes red. Electricity crackled about his right arm and he lunged at Iroh. Zuko moved to follow, but Azula was suddenly in his path, palms blazing. Iroh batted two soldiers off of him as Orochimaru stood back, seeing his apprentice coming in for the kill. Iroh also saw the young ninja coming, baffled at his technique. He could see that, outstretched before the boy was something like a blade infused with lightning. He smiled internally, though. He knew one technique to counter this that no one would see coming.

The Uchiha drove his fingers toward Iroh's heart as he came into striking distance, but the old man was fast, and caught his hand. A foolish move, Sasuke thought, as the lightning that would course through his body would now be just as likely to kill him, or at least incapacitate him. However, as he watched his foe, his sharingan eyes saw him draw the electricity into his stomach, letting it build there for a moment before providing an alternate path out of his body... and toward the Snake Sage.

Orochimaru's eyes widened for a moment and he tried to dodge, but fast as he was he was not faster than a bolt of lightning, and the electrical energy struck his shoulder, coursed through his blood stream and down his feet into the ship. He convulsed and fell to the deck as Kabuto rushed to his aid.

Iroh twisted a shocked Sasuke's arm, then, and drove him into the deck as he cart wheeled over his body and headed for his nephew. The fallen young ninja, however, still had fight left. He tossed a barrage of shuriken at the retreating figure. They passed him, but he tugged on the strings and they curled around him, restraining him. "Zuko!" the former crown prince shouted for his nephew, more out of concern for the young man being brought to task by his younger sister than for himself.

Zuko, however, turned to his uncle's cry and broke off his own furious fight to help his uncle. He saw the young captain purse his lips and send a giant fireball down the length of the wire and he quickened his pace, leaping over his uncle and sending a wave of flame cutting through the wire. Then, standing between the oncoming fireball and his uncle, he summoned more heat and power than he had in a long time, fueled by his extreme anger, and let loose a fireball that perfectly countered his opponent's.

"Zuko, go!" Iroh shouted, having just freed himself of his bonds. Zuko looked up to see Azula aiming her deadly lightning directly at him. She had just finished the form and was poised to strike. However, he then felt a mighty push from his uncle, just before the attack struck. He stumbled back and fell overboard, crashing into the water below as his uncle managed to once again redirect a bolt of lightning, this time into a mountainside on the steadily drifting shore.

When the Fire Prince resurfaced, he could see his uncle fighting off advancing troops near the retreating ship's edge. He could also see that red-eyed youth. He was staring right at him. He shuddered as he looked into those eyes, as merciless as his sister's. He felt almost as if they were growing larger and larger, taking up his whole field of vision. And then they broke away. He saw the captain draw his sword and in a quick motion his uncle's head freed itself from his body, a red mist trailing behind it.

Zuko almost forgot to float. Suddenly overcome by revulsion and fear, he turned and swam as hard as he could. He could still feel those eyes on his back. He could still see red mist in the air.


	3. Power of Love and Hate

**Elements of War**

**Chapter 02**  
**Power of Love and Hate**

Sokka floated atop a giant leaf in a calm lake as he and his younger comrades rested in a peaceful meadow. It was a much needed rest after the fiasco they had undergone just recently. After leaving the North Pole, they had stopped at an Earth Kingdom outpost, and the general there, in a crazed effort to end the war quickly, had tried to find a way to control Aang's Avatar State. To that end, he had attacked his own younger sister, Katara, and the release of the Avatar Spirit's fury had been quite enough to quell the Earth Kingdom soldiers' desire to use it, even if he and his boomerang had had to personally convince General Fong.

Of course, relaxation could only go on so long before it became downright boring. "You guys are gonna be done soon, right?" he asked of the two bathing clothed benders a small distance away. "We've got a lot of ground to cover if we wanna make it to Omashu today."

Katara and Aang stopped their practice and the former turned toward him with eyebrow arched. "What, like you're ready to go, now, naked guy?"

Sokka considered. He was indeed sparsely clad, and that was apparently inappropriate for most public affairs. "I can be ready in two minutes. Seriously." He kicked back again into the leaf. "Whatever."

Aang and Katara went back to training, the young waterbender lightly correcting the boy's form while he did his best to pay attention, though he was a bit embarrassed at the girl's close attention. They put the octopus waterbending form into practice then, with Katara launching icicles as Aang used eight liquid arms to parry. When they finished, Katara put her hands on her hips and acknowledged, "You make a fine octopus, Pupil Aang." Indeed, the airbender was making a fine representation of an octopus with his newfound waterbending skills.

The three travelers found their attentions diverted by singing in the distance. They heard it as faint musical background at first, then the voices and words became comprehensible. "... don't fall in love with a traveling girl," a man's voice sang, "She'll leave you broke and broken hearted..." As the singing troupe came into view, they could see there were five of them. The lead man looked long in the face but quite cheerful. He was wrapped in blossoms and he strummed on a pear-shaped pipa, producing lazy yet entrancing steps . The woman to his left had large hair adorned with a bloom and wore black and pink raiment and was currently blowing shrill, expressive notes through a flute. Beside her, a very large man with a cobalt complexion and black robes with red clouds printed on it played a large zheng, giving a background accompaniment that sounded like the rippling of waves on the ocean. A wide man to the leader's right wore pink and white robes and had a coolie hat and he drummed out the wandering rhythm. To his right was a man with long black hair dressed in dark gray clothes, and he cried in a plaintive xiao tone through his suona trumpet.

A splash was heard by the musical troupe as Sokka fell from his leaf boat an into the lake on their arrival. The lead man pointed and exclaimed, "Hey-hey! River people!"

"We're not river people," Katara denied.

The man looked confused. "You're not? Well then what kind of people are ya?"

Aang returned his answer hesitantly. "Just... people."

The man laughed. "Aren't we all, brother!"

Sokka, still clad only in his underwear, pointed suspiciously at the other group. "Who are you?" he questioned.

"I'm Chong," the man replied. He gestured toward the woman. "And this is my wife, Lily. We're nomads, happy to go wherever the wind takes us!" He riffed a series of random notes on his pipa.

"You guys are nomads!" Aang burst. "That's great! I'm a nomad."

"Hey, me too," Chong said in amazement.

"I know... you just said that," Aang replied, confused.

"Oh," the nomad replied, his eyes seeming to unfocused. Then, randomly, he pointed out to Sokka, "Nice underwear."

The young Water Tribe warrior again assessed his state of dress—or, rather, undress—and took decisive and completely appropriate action. He grabbed Momo, placed him over his sensitive area, and booked to find an appropriate dressing area.

Aang and Katara settled near Appa with the troupe and they began to exchange stories of their travels. When Sokka returned to find Appa with braided hair (much to his chagrin—Appa was a _man_-bison!), Aang bid him, "Hey, Sokka, you should hear some of these stories. These guys have been everywhere."

Chong paused on his pipa, clarifying, "Well, not everywhere, Little Arrowhead. But where we haven't been we've heard about through stories and songs."

Sokka was visibly skeptical, but Aang continued, saying "They said they'll take us to see a giant night crawler."

The hefty nomad, who had been introduced as Moku, continued in a longing voice, "On the way there's a waterfall that creates a never-ending rainbow."

Sokka refused to be moved. "Look, I hate to be the wet blanket here but," he looked firmly at his sister, whose hair was being ornately braided by Lily, "Since Katara is busy I guess it's up to me. No sidetracks, no worms, and definitely no rainbows."

Chong interjected with a half amused and half bewildered tone, "Whoa… sounds like someone's got a case of 'destination fever,' heh. You're worried too much about where you're going."

Lily nodded supportively. "You've gotta focus less on the 'where' and more on the 'going.'"

Stubbornly, Sokka once more reiterated his point. "O. Ma. Shu."

"Sokka's right," Aang admitted. "We need to find King Bumi so Aang can learn earthbending somewhere safe."

"Well," Chong said thoughtfully. "Sounds like you're headed to Omashu." Sokka smacked his head audibly in frustration. "There's an old story about a secret pass…" he said ominously,_ "_… Right through the mountains."

"Is this real or is this a legend?" Katara asked skeptically, not much more sure than her brother of this traveler's credibility.

"Oh, it's a real legend," the nomad responded, affirming the group's assessment of this guy's mental status. "And it's as old as earthbending itself." He strummed on his pipa and began to sing. "Two lovers, forbidden from one another… a war divides their people, and a mountain divides them apart. Built a path to be together." He stopped singing and said, "Yeah, and I forget the next couple of lines, but then it goes… 'Secret tunnel! Secret tunnel! Through the mountain! Secret, secret, secret, secret tunnel! Yeah!'"

"I think we'll just stick with flying," Sokka said after the troupe had finished their enthusiastic chorus. "We've dealt with the Fire Nation before. We'll be fine."

Yeah. Thanks for the help," Aang said, "But Appa hates going underground and we need to do whatever makes Appa most comfortable." The bison growled his agreement. However, minutes later, the bison and his passengers suddenly found themselves more agreeable to the idea once they found themselves amidst a horde of Fire Nation soldiers with flaming catapults trained directly on them. They flew swiftly back to where they'd left the nomads and all agreed with Sokka when he said, "Secret love cave. Let's go."

Meanwhile, in another part of the Earth Kingdom, a lone figure trundled through the forest. He rubbed his stubbled scalp, mourning the loss of his queue to that spiky haired boy. But that was of the most minor concern to him now. Zuko's right eye welled up, but he didn't let tears fall for his slain uncle. The vision of the old man's head being liberated from his body replayed itself through his mind over and over. He wouldn't let himself cry until his uncle's murderer was slain. He had already had so much taken from him already. His country, his throne, his father's respect. He would not let this boy get away with taking from him the only person he had had left. Iroh may have been a fat, lazy oaf, but he was his fat, lazy oaf.

The young exile wandered past a small town, stopping only long enough to steal some food and supplies from a distracted merchant. He would survive. He would become strong enough to defeat that man. He would kill him and then he didn't care what happened next.

"How far are we from the tunnel?" Sokka asked elsewhere.  
"Actually, it's not just one tunnel," Chong explained. "The lovers didn't want anyone to find out about their love, so they built a whole labyrinth."

"Labyrinth?" Sokka exclaimed in horror.

"I'm sure we'll figure it out," said Chong.

Sokka was not so convinced, but then Lily piped in, "All you need to do is trust in love. According to the curse." Sokka was now definitely not convinced.

"Curse!"

In no time the group was there, standing before the gigantic cave. "Hey-hey, we're here!" Chong stated. Sokka studied a plaque that sat before the entrance with scrutiny.

"What exactly is this curse?"

**"** The curse says that only those who trust in love can make it through the caves," Chong recalled. "Otherwise you'll be trapped in them forever."

"And die," Lily added.

"Oh, yeah, and die. Hey, I just remembered the rest of that song," Chong realized. He strummed a minor chord on his pipa and sang in a deep voice, "And die!"

"That's it!" Sokka growled in aggravation. "There's no way we're going through some cursed hole!"

Moku and the other two members of the troupe turned at that point, having noticed a column of smoke rising from nearby. Moku pointed it out and said cheerfully, "Hey, someone's making a big campfire!"

Katara knew better. "That's no campfire, Moku."

**"**That's Fire Nation," Sokka agreed. "They're tracking us."

Aang looked at Chong uncertainly. "So all you need is to trust in love to get through these caves?"

"That is correct, Master Arrowhead."

The young monk looked at Katara, her back to him and hair blowing gently in the wind. He felt a pressure deep in his chest and a lightness in feet that had nothing to do with airbending. He turned to Chong with a confident smile. "We can make it."

"Everyone into the hole!" Sokka shouted, and the others followed suit, though Appa was somewhat belligerent about it. Not long afterward, a squad of Fire Nation soldiers and tanks advanced into the area, noting the direction of their quarry. The soldiers moved to follow, but the commander halted them.

"Hold on! It's too dangerous," he said from his tank. "Haven't you heard the song? Just close them in. The mountain will take care of the rest." The troops obeyed as they launched grappling hooks into the mountain, causing a rock slide that sealed the group in the cave, also sealing their fate.

Appa's feelings on the matter were transparent, as he attempted frantically to dig himself out. "It's okay, Appa," Katara soothed. "We'll be fine... I hope."

"We will be fine," Sokka asserted confidently. "All we need is a plan. Chong, how long do those torches last?" he asked, pointing to the torch in the nomad's hand.

"Eh, about two hours each."

"And we have five torches," Lily exclaimed. "So that's…"she struck the torches on the ground, lighting them like matches. "Ten hours."

Sokka grabbed the torches out of Lily's hands and stomped them out, shouting in an exhasperated tone, "It doesn't work like that if they're all lit at the same time!"

"Ohh, right."

"I'm gonna make a map to keep track of exactly where we've been," the Water Tribe warrior decided. "Then we should be able to solve it like a maze and get through."The others conceded to his logic and followed him down the tunnel. The young man meticulously mapped out their route, taking great pains to get the distance scaled down as accurately as he could. They traveled down multiple tunnels and backtracked after quite a few dead ends, until finally Katara spoke up.

"Sokka, this is the tenth dead end you've led us to."

"This doesn't make any sense," Sokka replied. "We already came through this way."

"We don't need a map. We just need love," Chong said. He pointed to Aang. "The little guy knows it."

"Yeah," the airbender replied, "But I wouldn't mind a map, also."

"There's something strange here..." Sokka insisted.

"Perhaps," said the nomads' suona trumpet playing member—he'd been introduced as Kurohi, if he remembered right. "The tunnels themselves are changing."

Sokka laughed. "Well, that's just..." he sobered. "Actually, that's just about what I was thinking."

The gray garbed nomad looked thoughtful. "I wonder... what could cause stone walls to move in an underground tunnel?" No answer was forthcoming as the earth began to shake.

"It's the curse!" Chong said, suddenly in an uncharacteristic panic. "Oh, I knew we shouldn't have come down here!"

"Right," Sokka commented with sarcasm. "If only we'd listened to you."

"Everyone be quiet," Katara whispered sharply. "Listen."

The group paused, hearing the strange sounds coming from far down the pitch dark tunnel. Momo leaped from Sokka's shoulder and faded into the darkness, and the wolf-tailed boy stared hard after the lemur. Not long afterward, a new form faded into view, this time a flying creature. With teeth. That was coming right for him! He tumbled backward as the thing flew over him. Gathering himself up again, he saw the creature's wings fold up into its front legs as it landed on the ground. He heard Moku shout that it was a wolf-bat. He'd never seen such a thing before, but he certainly wasn't wanting to stick around to learn more about it. As it leaped into the air once more, Sokka swung at it with his torch. Unfortunately he missed, catching Appa in the foot, instead.

The large flying bison was understandably upset, but even more so when, after knocking the torch out of Sokka's hand, the wolf-bat maliciously decided to attack the bison's burned toes. The bison thrashed about, slamming into the cave walls, causing the tunnel to crumble around them. Aang saw Sokka and the nomads about to be crushed by the falling boulders, so he used airbending to blow them deeper into the tunnel, then he paused for a crucial moment. He had only seen three nomads. Where were the other two.

"Get down, Aang!" he heard a voice say as a powerful pair of arms grappled him and whisked him the opposite way from Sokka and the others. "Wait," he said, realizing something. "Katara!" he stopped as he saw a gigantic sheet of rock descending on him and his would-be rescuer, but suddenly, he saw a torrent of water.

"A-Aang?" the young monk heard Katara say. "Are you alright?"

The boy looked around. Above him was the zheng player, Mizu, looking down on him with his strange, beady eyes. Over him was a dome of ice, which held up the sheet of rock that could have meant certain doom. "Oh... hey, thanks. I didn't know you were a waterbender, though." He looked over to see Katara, who was being let down from the trumpet player's arms.

"Where did all that water come from, though?" she asked.

The fishy nomad patted his gut in a jovial manner. "Right here. I keep my water supply in my own body. Beats a water skin, anyway."

The two kids thought that was a bit disgusting, but couldn't argue with its effectiveness. "Well, it looks like we're separated from the others, so we'll just have to find our own way out." Aang said. "Come with us," he offered the two nomads. The four travelers plus one large bison started down the tunnel with renewed determination.

"So," Kurohi said after a short time. "You're an... airbender, right?"

"Uhh, yeah," Aang said, a bit nervously. "The last one, I think."

Mizu laughed. "You'd be surprised, kid. You're the last air nomad, that's for certain, but there are those, however rare, who have an air affinity in the ninja community."

"Really?" Aang said. "I'd like to meet some."

"You'd be hard pressed," Mizu warned. "Sozin was very thorough. He managed to wipe out most of those with air affinity even among the ninja. There are only a few left, now, mostly in the Village Hidden in Sand."

"How do you know so much about it?" Katara asked, suddenly suspicious. "Are you a ninja?"

"We were, once," Kurohi responded. "We were exiled from our lands, however. We did not agree with the policies of our homelands, so we had to leave."

"Oh," Katara said, a bit embarrassed. "I'm sorry. It has to be hard to leave your home."

"You should know," Kurohi offered. "After all, you left your home to go to the North Pole in order to get training for the Avatar."

"How?" Katara started, shocked that the young man had managed to figure out who they were. Her limbs tingled with anticipation of a fight.

"Relax," Kurohi said. "It's simple. Your friend is the last airbender... and the Avatar is an airbender." He shook his head. "We used to be ninja, but that doesn't mean our skills have diminished. A ninja's true purpose is not assassination, but bringing hidden truths to light."

Aang nodded, considering the words. "I knew a couple ninja once. He was from the Fire Nation," the boy said. "And he was from the Uchiha clan, just like you."

Kurohi stopped, his eyes assessing the Avatar with a new appreciation. "You could be a good ninja, as well." His eyes changed from coal black to red, with three black seeds in the iris swirling around the pupil. "You're right, I am of the Uchiha. But I am... only one of three left in this world."

Aang looked somber. "I'm sorry," he said. "I know what it feels like to have all your people taken from you."

The Uchiha's face, passionless until now, twisted slightly with discomfort. "I think that's enough talk for now. We've reached the tomb."

The two benders looked awestruck upon a large round door. "Tomb?"

"That's right," Mizu said. "According to the legend, the two lovers were buried here. This is the entrance to their tomb, which is built at the place where they would meet. This is the center of the maze."

Aang and Katara nodded, and proceeded to open the tomb, though they were met with much difficulty. Appa then joined in, quite desperate to speed along their progress and get himself back in the air where he belonged. The door rolled aside, revealing a beautiful cavern filled with sculptures and plaques. The four people plus one bison walked down the grand staircase to the two sarcophagi at the center of the crypt, where Katara began to read the tale of the two lovers aloud from a dais.

It was a tale of lovers from rival villages, who learned earthbending from the badgermoles, who were the original earthbenders. They built the tunnels to meet, but one day the man died in the war between the villages, and, enraged, the woman used her earthbending to force the fighting to stop. She then built a new city, which was named after her and her lover, Shu. This city was Omashu. After hearing this tale they looked up to an inscription in a plaque between a statue of Oma and Shu kissing. "Love is brightest in the dark," Katara read.

"Hmm," Kurohi muttered. "It sounds like two of us are going to have to kiss each other."

"I'm not kissing you," Mizu said bluntly.

"I'd hope not," the other replied. He looked at the young waterbender. "Katara, I'm afraid, would be a bit too young for either of us, as well."

"Ahh," Mizu said. "I see. The only logical explanation would be..."

Katara looked nervously at Aang. She had been thinking along the same lines, herself, but she could see that the young monk was a bit puzzled. She could not think of anything more embarrassing than this. It's not as if she didn't think Aang was cute and all, but what if he rejected it? What if it changed their friendship? What if he was a really bad kisser? She sighed. "Okay, I'll kiss Aang."

"What?" the airbender asked, shocked.

"Oh," Mizu said. "Well, I would have gladly done it, but..."

"Stop it," Kurohi grumbled. Then he smiled a smile that held genuine warmth and a chill of grief at the same time. "Perhaps it will work. I sense strong bonds between you two. You might be surprised the power such bonds can hold."

- - -

Miles away, there was a ship filled with soldiers, three ninja, a princess, and a traitor. The princess Azula spoke to the traitor. "Zuko can't hide forever, Uncle. We'll find him." She grinned maliciously. "Or he may just come back for you, assuming you haven't disappointed him too much with your weakness."

"No," one of the ninja said, the Uchiha boy. "The prince won't come back for his uncle. He thinks he's dead."

"What have you done, boy?" Iroh asked with a hint of anger.

"Just a simple genjutsu," Sasuke said. "With these sharingan eyes, it's simple. He saw me take off your head instead of merely knocking you out with my hilt. He ran away like a coward." The boy's eyes hardened. "But... he'll be back for me. He has great anger and greater determination. It's interesting... I want to see what he will do..."

Sasuke exhaled, his eyes softened with a reminiscent look. Reflected in them was a familiar determined face, hot with indignation, shouting at Sasuke that he would break his arms and legs. "And, maybe, he will find strength enough to be of use."

"My, my," Azula said with honest appreciation. "You are a devious one, aren't you? I think I'm beginning to like you."

The Uchiha grunted and turned. "It's just a matter of proper motivation."

"You think hate is the most powerful force that drives a man?" Iroh asked, his voice suddenly full of compassion. The Uchiha stopped and looked at the old man, his eyes still cold. "That is an outmoded way of thinking. Hate may provide quick and easy power at first, but in the end it will destroy you."

Sasuke's eyebrows narrowed. "I think hate will last me long enough for my purpose."

Iroh sighed as the Uchiha and his niece exited the room. "Poor boy..." he whispered. "Just as lost as his brother..."

Orochimaru and Kabuto met the two teens in the hallway. "Well," Orochimaru said smoothly. "It seems General Iroh has gotten soft since we last met. I don't think you'll have any problem transporting him home, Princess."

"You don't think _I'll_ have trouble?" the young woman asked. "I'm sorry to say, but I'd make a horrible babysitter."

"We were hired for apprehension of your criminals, not transportation," Orochimaru reasoned. "I can capture the prince far more easily than you, as well. Especially if Iroh has taught him any of the secret shinobi techniques with which you would be unfamiliar."

"Ridiculous!" Azula said. "I will capture my brother myself. This is a family matter in the first place; Father should never have brought you into this!"

Sasuke intervened. "Miss Azula may be right. After all, she knows her brother more intimately than we do. Besides, it would be just as simple to apprehend Zuko with a small, elite task force."

Orochimaru stared down his apprentice with his cold, serpentine eyes. "So... you want an elite task force?"

"It's better this way," Sasuke said. "A small group of elite fighters will be more effective than an army, especially if ninja are involved, as Fire Lord Ozai suspects." He turned to his master. "I have prospects in mind. Do I have your permission to use whatever resources I deem necessary?"

"Of course," Orochimaru said. "My minions should become used to hearing orders from your face."

Azula nodded and said, "I have some people in mind, too."

"However!" Orochimaru interjected. "I have one requirement to my cooperation in this matter."

"What do you want? More gold?" Azula proffered. "Easily done."

"No," he rejected. "Your older brother was chasing a boy who is alleged to be the Avatar. The one human being who can naturally use all forms of elemental manipulation. I want him."

Azula scowled. "I'm afraid we have a conflict of interest, here. My father also wants the Avatar. Alive."

"Oh, I will keep him alive, I assure you," Orochimaru reassured her. "Nor will I allow him any chance to escape once he is in my grasp. I only want to... learn from him." He chuckled. "I still have much to learn."

- - -

"Um, well... you don't have to if you don't want to... I mean... I don't really care."

"Yeah... yeah, who would care about such a silly thing? It's silly. Really silly..."

"Then do it!" Mizu growled at the two youths working up the courage to press flesh. "Really... you'd think the Avatar would be a bit smoother with the ladies."

"Hey," Aang shot back. "I have no trouble with ladies. I had all kinds of ladies following me around on Kyoshi island!"

"You mean, 'little girls'..." Katara added.

"Hmph," Mizu grunted.

Kurohi closed his eyes and smiled knowingly. "Ah. I see."

"You see what?" Mizu asked as the two young benders looked quizzically at the Uchiha.

"Well, it's obvious," the young man said to his friend. "These two... they must have very strong feelings for one another."

"What?" the two shouted.

"Ohhh," Mizu said, a sly grin spreading across his face. "So they're lovebirds..."

"That's ridiculous!" Aang protested.

"Yeah, tha—wait, it's not _that_ ridiculous," Katara cut in.

"Uh... I didn't mean..." Aang stammered. "That is... we're just friends! So we'd never want to... I mean, obviously we're not..."

"For those truly in love," Kurohi said softly. "A kiss cannot simply be forced by circumstance." He got his trumpet out and blew a plaintive tune. "There has to be a certain... mood."

"I understand," Mizu said, and he strummed on his zheng. He then began to sing, "In the dark of the cave, love will light the way / You can't lose the love that's in your heart!"

Aang and Katara looked at the two travelers like they had gone mad. The instrumentals weren't exactly bad, though a bit repetitive, but Mizu's singing was just awful. "Okay, Aang, let's do it."

"Wha?" the monk asked, bewildered. "You mean... you think this is romantic?"

"No, it's horrible," she stated bluntly. "Let's kiss so they stop."

"Right..." Aang said. She took him by the shoulder as their torch began to sputter. It was down to its last moments. They leaned in, faces flushed.

- - -

"If the next person to walk through that door is a girl, I'll kill her!" a lone voice in a prison cell said. "If the next person to walk through that door is a girl... I'll definitely kill her!" Suddenly, the chained beast heard a clack as the door sprang open. On a whim, he suddenly said, "Wait! If the next person to walk through the door is a guy, then I'll kill him!" He turned his feral eyes toward the silhouette that now appeared in the doorway. As it stepped through, the beast saw its features clearly.

He faltered. "Not a guy," he said, noting the full, red lips and wide hips of his visitor.

"So sorry to disappoint you... what was his name again?" the girl asked another figure. The beast moved to the side, trying to see at whom she was looking.

"Juugo," a voice said. "He is a talented man, though unstable due to a certain illness..." This voice... it was attached to a man. He saw him. A shock of black hair and a white robe.

"You!" he growled. "I'll kill you!" He leaped past the girl and his claws raked the air as he went on the attack, murder in his eyes. His fist collided with flesh, pushing it into the wall, cracking it. He could see guards readying themselves to take him down, but he knew they wouldn't stop him before he had had his fill of bloodletting.

Just then, he found himself being pushed back by a strong spiritual power. This power was backed by a large hand that had sprouted from the other guy's back. "Not another copy of me!" he growled, slapping the monstrous hand away. "But this one's pretty tough, he can even do partial transformations. He must have good control over the curse seal."

"I didn't come here to fight," Sasuke said, the black of the curse seal enveloping his left half, turning his cornea black. "I need to discuss something with you Juugo, that's all."

Juugo considered the copy. "He's strong. The strongest since that other copy, Kimimaro!" He made a move to attack, once more, but this time the girl got in his way, shooting a jet of flame between them.

"I'm insulted!" Azula said coyly. "You give all this attention to Sasuke and don't even give me a second glance!" She dodged an angry blow from the ill man and planted an explosive kick to his gut, sending him skidding back. Juugo wobbled, clutching his stomach in pain. He was surprised. Few were able to effect him in such a way while he was in this stage of his disease. However, it was not enough to stop him.

"Stop, Azula," Sasuke ordered. "We didn't come to fight." He had to motion to the guards to stay back as well, because he knew that if they got involved, it would just result in unnecessary bloodshed.

The princess found herself rather put off by the authority in his voice. She definitely wasn't used to people telling her what to do like they were entitled. She disregarded him and moved to attack the murderous man. She would put fear of her in his heart and then he would obey.

The young princess and the raving man both found themselves in the clutches of large snakes that issued from the ninja's sleeves. Sasuke looked at both of them, cold murder in his own eyes, shocking the both of them. "How about I kill the both of you?" he asked.

The blotches on Juugo's face began to recede as the snakes slithered back into Sasuke's sleeves. He looked around himself in confusion. He saw the guards circled around and the cracked wall. He saw himself out of his cell. He screamed. He dashed back to his cell and shut the door behind him. "Lock the door!" he demanded.

"Juugo," Sasuke said. "I came here to free you. Come with me."

"What is he so afraid of?" Azula muttered.

"I don't want to kill people anymore!" Juugo shouted, almost as if answering the question, though he was at the time too panicked to truly listen. "Just leave me alone! Please!"

The Fire Princess understood. "So... he has some kind of multiple personality?" Sasuke nodded.

"I could start killing again at any time," Juugo went on. "Please lock me back in."

"With someone like that..." Azula reasoned, "It could be a huge risk, don't you think?" She looked at the closed door. "That monster might just lose control and kill us... or at least get in our way."

"No," Sasuke said. He walked closer to the door and spoke to Juugo. "Orochimaru has given me authority to complete a very difficult mission. I need your special talents. I will act as your prison in place of concrete walls and metal doors."

"What do you think you could do?" Juugo protested. "The only one who could calm my impulses was Kimimaro. I can't be allowed to leave if he's not there." Sasuke remembered Kimimaro. He was of the Kaguya clan, and Orochimaru's favorite subject. He was the most loyal of them all and had willingly offered his body to Orochimaru, both for experimentation and to become Orochimaru's new body once his current one decayed. However, he became ill, and thus useless for Orochimaru's purposes, so he sacrificed his life to bring Sasuke safely to him, so that he might be his new body.

"Juugo," Sasuke said. "Kimimaro is dead. He died for my sake."

"He... died for you?" Juugo asked, stunned. "That means... you're... Uchiha... Sasuke?"

"Yes," the Uchiha responded. Juugo remembered Kimimaro speaking of this young man right before he went to die. Juugo had wondered how anyone could be so special that Kimimaro would die for his sake. The Kaguya had told him that this Uchiha was the only other suitable vessel, and that bringing him would be like a rebirth. He understood, now. He opened the door and came to Sasuke, now resolved that this Uchiha was indeed a man who could take Kimimaro's stead.

- - -

Aang, Katara, Appa, Kurohi, and Mizu all emerged from the cave. They breathed deeply the fresh air and rejoiced at seeing the sun after so many hours. Aang and Katara looked at each other and blushed, embarrassed at what had happened in the tomb.

"I... guess it was lucky our torch went out," Katara said. "I guess those crystals only glow when they're in total darkness."

"Or maybe it was the power of love that did it," Mizu said with a grin. The two young people turned a deeper red.

"Umm," Aang said after a moment. "So what about Sokka and the others?"

Suddenly, rock shrapnel was everywhere as two large forms burst out of the mountainside. The four travelers readied themselves for a fight, but relaxed when they saw familiar faces atop the badger-moles' backs.

"How did you guys get out?" Sokka asked as he slid down the beast.

"Just like the legend said," Aang responded coyly. "We let love lead the way." Katara's cheeks went rosy again as he said that.

"Really?" Sokka said. "We let huge ferocious beasts lead our way. Apparently, they're big music fans." He turned and waved goodbye to the badger-moles as they receded back into the mountain, closing up the new entryways behind them.

Katara hugged her older brother, glad that he had emerged unscathed, though she did notice, "Why is your forehead all red?" Sokka started to answer, but then Chong cut in.

"Nobody react to what I'm about to tell you," he said in the most serious tone they had heard from the man. "I think that kid might be the Avatar." Sokka smacked his forehead in utter exasperation, widening the red mark there considerably, and thus answering Katara's question satisfactorily.

"So are you guys coming to Omashu with us?" Aang asked.

"Nope," Moku responded.

"Actually," Kurohi said. "I think Mizu and I would enjoy your company for a little while longer."

"Okay," Aang said, pleased. He thought these two guys were pretty nice, and if they were ex-ninja they might be helpful in his journey.

Sokka came over, adorned now with flowers as Chong, Lily, and Moku all wandered away, singing their songs. "The journey was long and annoying," Sokka said cheerfully. "But now you get to see what it's really about – the destination." He went to the edge of the cliff they found themselves on and said, "I present to you the Earth Kingdom city of O... oh, no," he said as he took in the sight before him.

The walls of Omashu were now adorned with a Fire Nation flag. Siege towers surrounded it and fires were smoldering throughout the city. Omashu had been taken.


	4. Return to Omashu

**Elements of War**

**Chapter 3  
Return to Omashu  
**

Ty Lee was brushing the sweaty tangles out of her hair after undoing her braid. It had been quite a performance, this afternoon, and she was ready to ditch the constraining costume and have a nice hot soak in a nearby hot spring. She heard the sound of footsteps approaching her tent and glanced toward the flap. A familiar face entered her view.

"Ty Lee? Could that possibly be you?"

"Azula!" the brunette acrobat cheered as she hopped over to her, bowing before gathering the princess in a big bear hug. Azula smiled and returned the hug. "It is so good to see you!"

"Please," Azula said graciously. "Don't let me interrupt... whatever it was you were doing." She followed Ty Lee back into the tent. "Tell me, what is the daughter of a nobleman doing here? Certainly our parents didn't send us to the Royal Fire Academy for Girls to end up in," she looked around the flimsy tent with its gaudy props and decorations. "Places like this."

"Oh, it's wonderful here at the circus!" Ty Lee said. "So much better than at home. My aura has never been pinker!" The acrobat smiled.

"I'll take your word for it," Azula said. "But... I have a proposition for you..."

Something about that last phrase made Ty Lee decidedly uncomfortable. Azula's propositions were never all that fun for anyone involved. Then she spotted two young men trying to be inconspicuous at the entrance to her tent. "Ohhh! I see," she said with a dirty grin. "You want me to go on a double date with you!"

"Eh?" Azula inquired in uncharacteristic confusion. She watched Ty Lee leap over her head and bound over to Sasuke and Juugo who had been waiting outside. She pulled the young men inside. "Ty Lee, wait, I think you..."

"So, which one is yours?" Ty Lee asked, looking the boys over. "Ooh," she said, noting Sasuke's dark scowl and trendy hair. "I bet it's this one!" She pushed Sasuke and Azula together. "Aww! You two look cute, together!" She looked at Juugo. "I have to say, Azula, you do know my tastes. He's really cute, even if he is a bit older!" She poked a bewildered Juugo's nose and squeaked.

"Ty Lee!" Azula growled. "That's... not the proposition I was talking about." She cleared her throat, regaining her composure. "I'm hunting a traitor. You remember my brother."

"Oh, yeah," Ty Lee recalled. "He was funny when he got all grumpy!"

"Right..." Azula deadpanned. "I would be honored if you would join me on my mission."

"Oh," Ty Lee said hesitantly. "I... um... I kind of still have some performances, ya know, and... well, I'm really happy here..."

"Well," Azula said. "I would hate to make you do something you didn't want to do." She picked up a small doll that seemed to be modeled after the gymnast. "But the circus... it's such a dangerous place," she said, her voice full of concern. "I'd hate for something to... happen to you." Suddenly the doll was alight with blue flames that died quickly down to a smoldering orange as she dropped the toy in the dirt.

Ty Lee gulped. "Well, you know... what are friends for?" She forced a cheery giggle.

- - -

"That wasn't as bad as I thought," Katara said as she emerged with her companions from the sewage. Suddenly, a green blob oozed up through the manhole. Her eyes bulged and she backed away. Spotting a barrel of water to the side, she bent some water at the monster, washing off the gunk to reveal her brother, complete with two bulbous creatures hanging from his face. They squeaked.

Sokka screamed, pulling at the creatures, but they were stuck tight. "They won't let go! Help!"

Aang pinned Sokka to the wall, silencing him. "Don't make so much noise," he chided the older boy. "They're just purple pentapus." He rubbed one of the pentapus' head with his finger and it gently released Sokka's cheek. The water tribe boy then repeated the process on the other, with similar results. Aang then removed a third pentapus from Sokka's neck that had heretofore gone unnoticed.

"Hey!" a guard growled, having just rounded a corner. "What are you doing out past curfew?" Aang ducked behind Katara and Sokka, quickly reemerging with a red hat to obscure his arrow tattoo.

"Sorry," Katara said. "We were just on our way home."

"Wait," said the guard. "What's the matter with him?" he pointed toward Sokka, noting the red welts on his face from the pentapus.

"Oh," Katara stalled as her mind raced for an explanation. "He has pentapox, sir."

The guard walked up to Sokka, curious, and tried to touch him, but was stopped by Katara. "Um... it's highly contagious!" she said. He hesitated, noting the boy's suddenly stricken look.

"Uuuuuu... it's so awful... I'm dying," Sokka choked, looking very obviously unwell.

"And deadly," Katara concluded.

"Wait, I think I've heard of pentapox."He turned to a fellow guard. "Didn't your cousin Chang die of it?" He looked back at Sokka as he stumbled forward, coughing up some kind of... bodily fluid. "We'd better go wash our hands...and burn our clothes!" The guards all turned tail and ran.

Sokka straightened, his act over, and Aang rubbed the pentapus' head. "Thank you, sewer friend."

"Quick thinking, Katara," Kurohi said.

"Thanks, Kurohi," Katara said.

"Actually," the man said. "Kurohi is just the name I give to avoid being tracked." He smiled at Aang. "Since we're traveling together, you can call me by my real name. It's Itachi."

Mizu looked strangely at Itachi, as if unsure of his intent. "Yeah," he said, after a moment. "My real name is Kisame."

"Oh," Aang said, accepting the explanation. "In that case, we're pleased to meet you again, Itachi and Kisame."

"Right," Katara said. "But, for now, let's find Bumi and get out of here."

- - -

In another of Orochimaru's many hideouts, this one in the grass region of the Earth Kingdom, five people looked up at a large tank filled with water. The fifth member of Azula and Sasuke's squad, Karin, had met them there from the southern base, having been sent direct orders from Orochimaru, himself, to help them in their mission. However, she was not too happy about this. "I would say releasing a dangerous experiment like Juugo is stupid enough," the redheaded ninja said. "But releasing Suigetsu... that's just crazy."

"Not as crazy as you, babe," a voice said from within the chamber of water.

"What... is this thing?" Azula asked, intrigued at the seemingly sentient water. "I read the report of the ocean rising up to destroy our fleets at the North Pole, but that was due to the Avatar channeling the spirit of the ocean... is this... talking bowl of water a man or a spirit... or something else?"

"I am definitely something else," Suigetsu said as his volume of water was dumped onto the floor from a tube that ran from the chamber. His physical head began to form from the liquid as the rest of his body followed. "I used to be a member of the Seven Swordsman from the Hidden Mist Village," he said. "Hmm, I remember, now, Sasuke," he said. "You were in the team that defeated my senior, Momochi Zabuza..."

"That was a long time ago," Sasuke said. "I don't know them."

Suigetsu's full naked form had now formed, causing no little amount of giggling from Ty Lee. "Geez, that's too bad." He looked around at the assembled group. "I don't know what to make of you, Uchiha. I can't say I approve of your choice in teammates, myself excluded. I don't like those two at all," he said gesturing to Juugo and Karin. "And these other two..." he looked Azula and Ty Lee over. "A princess and an airhead. I don't know..."

"You don't have to get along with anyone, Suigetsu," Sasuke said firmly. "Just work with them. Now put on some clothes and let's go."

"I'll go with you," the Mist ninja agreed. "But there's somewhere we need to stop before we get anything else."

- - -

"Plague! Plague!" A soldier shouted, panicked, as he ran through the streets. Alarm was sweeping through the city as citizens walked the streets like zombies, welts adorning their faces. High above, the governor looked on with his wife, daughter, and newborn son.

"What is going on down there?" the governor asked.

"I saw some kids yesterday who were sick with pentapox," one of his guards told him. "It must have spread! "

"Pentapox!" the governor exclaimed. "I'm pretty sure I've heard of that."

"Oh, this is terrible," said bemoaned his wife.

"What should we do?" the guard asked.

"Drive them out of the city...but don't touch them! We have to rid the city of this disease!"

As the guard left to complete his new mission, the governor's daughter, Mai, a bleak looking girl with a long, noble visage, offered her father her bowl. "Fire flakes, dad?"

"How awful!" the governor's wife gasped. Unbeknown to them, the baby, Tom-tom, was wandering off. In his room, Tom-tom found a funny white creature, and found its tail to be mesmerizing. He wanted to play with it, and, he decided, he would, no matter where it went.

- - -

Sasuke and Azula stood before a large bridge connecting a small island to the Earth Kingdom mainland. Upon the sign overhanging the bridge, it read "Great Naruto Bridge."

"That's a weird name for a bridge," the princess remarked. She looked over at Sasuke, who was looking at the sign with the faintest of smiles on his face, as if he were recalling a pleasant memory. "Sasuke?"

"It's nothing," he said. "Let's go." They had come so that Suigetsu could retrieve a weapon of one of the Seven Swordsmen. The Demon Zabuza's beheading sword was here, where the ninja had died with his partner, Haku, after a grueling fight with a green Leaf ninja squad which concluded with him turning on the man who had contracted him, a vile and hated criminal in the guise of a businessman. Now the sword, which had been passed on through generations of swordsman, would be Suigetsu's.

- - -

In another village, further away, the great bridge's namesake and his master Jiraiya stopped for supplies and food. "Man," Naruto said. "If we don't get more to eat than some soldier rations, I am going to die."

"Yeah, well," Jiraiya responded. "A ninja's life is fraught with peril... not to mention starvation."

"—a huge reward for anyone who catches the thief!"

The two ninja turned to the source of the voice they had just overheard, suddenly intrigued. Jiraiya came up to the two men who had just been talking. "Excuse me," he interjected. "But did I here someone say 'huge reward?'"

"Uhh," one of the men said, "Yeah. There's this guy, they call him The Blue Spirit on account of the mask he wears and how he seems to appear and disappear like a ghost!"

Jiraiya looked back at his young protegé. "A ghost... or a ninja..." he smiled. "So how much is this reward?"

"Five hundred gold pieces!" the man said. "Apparently the Blue Spirit stole twice that much from a local nobleman."

"Wow, pervy sage!" Naruto exclaimed. "That could feed us for the rest of our journey home..." his eyes misted with dreamy thoughts. "And even have enough left over to go on an expensive date with Sakura..."

"It sounds good," Jiraiya agreed. "I think we may have just solved our problem."

- - -

"Well, we didn't find Bumi," Aang said. "But on the bright side, we did manage to evacuate all the people with a fake plague."

"Yeah," Sokka said. "But on the downside," he lifted a screeching Momo with a baby attached to his tail. "Look at what your lemur brought home!"

Itachi looked at them thoughtfully. "So the governor now thinks you've kidnapped his son? And he wants to trade for King Bumi." He stroked his chin. "Truly, this governor is a fool."

"It could be a trap," Sokka said.

"I don't think so," Itachi said. "I know of this man. I've heard stories. He is quite protective of his family, and that is his weakness." He looked meaningfully at Aang. "In order to achieve the greater good, one must sacrifice one's bonds. Only then can a person be strong enough to do what must be done." He looked away, and Aang thought he detected a hint of remorse in his eyes. "This man cannot do this. That is why he cannot be setting a trap. He would not risk sacrifice of a loved one to protect his ideals."

Katara, Aang, and Sokka exchanged glances. It was odd how he almost made trying to protect one's family sound like a bad thing. "So," Katara said. "I guess we'll wait until the morning and see."

The next day brought with it yet more arrivals, however. As Mai prepared to go with her father to hand over the Omashu king in exchange for her little brother, Azula and a gang of five others, only one of whom she recognized, appeared before her. "Please tell me you're here to kill me," she said as she bowed to the princess.

"It's good to see you Mai," Azula said, hugging the girl politely. Ty Lee also hugged Mai, though much more enthusiastically.

"I thought you ran off and joined the circus," Mai said incredulously. "You said it was your calling."

"Well," Ty Lee said. "Azula called a little louder."

"We have a mission," Azula said. "And we need you."

"Count me in," Mai said without bothering to hear it out. "Anything to get me out of this place."

"My, my," Suigetsu muttered to the rest of the group. "Was it this easy to convince all of you, or is she just over eager?"

- - -

Mai and her two friends stood with the four ninja behind her as she faced off against the group of alleged kidnappers, which apparently consisted of a twelve year old, some kids her age, and a couple raggedy looking hobos in cloaks. Calmly, though she seethed inside, she signaled that Bumi be lowered. He was encased in a full metal jacket which stopped him from earthbending and was being transported via crane down to ground level. "Hi, everybody," the insane king snorted as he landed behind Mai's group.

"You brought my brother?" Mai asked.

"He's here," the little boy said, gesturing to a boy not much older who held Tom-tom in his arms. "We're ready to trade."

"I'm sorry," Azula cut in. "But a thought just occurred to me. Do you mind?"

"Of course not, Princess Azula," Mai responded.

"We're trading a two-year-old for a king. A powerful earthbending king."

"Mmhmm," Bumi agreed.

"It doesn't seem like a fair trade, does it?"

Mai looked over the group of "vicious kidnappers," noting how her brother cooed in the boy's arms. That kid looked like he was more at the mercy of Tom-tom than the other way around. The other kids there didn't look like much of a problem, either; in fact, she was pretty sure she could take them. She decided. "You're right," she turned to the young boy in front. "Deal's off." At a gesture, Bumi rose once again into the scaffolding.

"Whoa!" Bumi said gleefully. "See you all later!"

"Bumi!" Aang shouted, leaping after the king. He saw one of the Fire Nations girls leap forward and shoot a plume of blue flame at him, but he dodged, landing on another girder before opening his glider and sailing off. Unfortunately, his hat blew off his head as he flew.

"The Avatar!" Azula gasped. "My lucky day." She moved toward the elevator winch, intending to use it for a little lift, but she suddenly found one of the ragged, gray cloaked men in her way. She couldn't see the man's face clearly, as it was covered partially by a hood. "You there! Out of my way!" she struck at him, blue flames dancing from her fingertips, but the man easily dodged, and quickly invaded her strike zone and delivered a painful punch to the gut. She caught the man's arm and held him firmly, shouting back to her shinobi, "Sasuke!"

She didn't have to say anymore. The young ninja was already scaling the scaffolding, in hot pursuit of the Avatar. She, meanwhile, decided not to underestimate this man again.

Meanwhile, Aang had caught up to Bumi, and was desperately trying to free him. "Hang on!" he told his old friend. "We're gonna get you out of here!" He took a deep breath and blew on the chain, and ice crystals slowly began to form.

"Aang..." Bumi prodded, but the boy kept stubbornly blowing. "Um... Aang!" He pursed his lips and said quietly. "You might want to look out behind you..."

Aang turned and saw a figure hurtling toward him, hand crackling with lightning. He ducked and the other boy's hand swiped through the chain, sending them all hurtling down.

On ground level, Azula was still trying to fight this cloaked man. He was very good, she could tell, but she would not be beaten by a hobo. She feinted and then struck, a swath of blue fire raking the man's head. His hood was burned away, and she could see his face more clearly. She was somewhat surprised, though. It was uncanny: the resemblance between this man and Sasuke. He was older, obviously, and he had bags under his eyes, unlike Sasuke who usually seemed well rested. But they definitely had the same eyes. Cold, filled with pain... and, more importantly, blazing red with three seeds circling the pupil.

"I see," Azula said smugly. "Two pleasant surprises in one day!" She pulled her fingers through the air, etching a jagged path of light as her energy increased. She poured lightning into the space between them, and though she thought she saw the man's hand move for a moment, there was no blocking this attack. Lightning slammed into the man, boiling the water in his cells and scarring his nerves as the electricity used his body as a shortcut to the earth. She eased up and watched the man fall to his knees, body steaming. "Well," she said smugly. "I'm shocked." She laughed at her little joke. "I thought the infamous Itachi Uchiha would be so much harder to kill..."

Itachi's smoking body suddenly began to quiver and the skin began to split. A streak of feathers flew as a bird popped out of his carcass. Finally, his body burst, and crows issued forth, surrounding Azula. She took a step back, disgusted by the display, but she found herself in the clutches of a completely unharmed Itachi. "So, you thought I would be harder to kill?" he asked her, turning her around and looking her in the eyes. His eyes had changed since she last glimpsed them. Now they looked like a three pronged pinwheels, spinning in the red field of their irises.

Overhead, Sasuke and Aang rode Bumi down to Omashu's famous mail delivery slides. As they traded blows, Bumi's prison began to slide down the stone shaft. Sasuke, as he struck, trailed short streaks of electricity, but Aang blocked by striking the inside of his elbow. The ninja backed off, realizing he was at a disadvantage here. His speed was of no help to him in such close combat. He activated his sharingan and struck again, trying to read the boy's movements.

It's not like anything I've seen, he thought. However, his sharingan was adept, and he soon found a weakness and exploited it with a swift knee to the gut. The boy fell from the cage, but as he spun in midair, a wind picked up and carried him around. Of course, he thought. Airbending. He remembered how Temari had used her air affinity in her ninjutsu, and that she could use that huge fan to glide. He quickly built his energy imbalance inside and turned to where the airbender had floated and released an arc. However, as if he had been standing on solid ground the whole time, Aang backflipped out of the way before the bolt was released, and landed back to back while the lightning raced into the clouds.

Sasuke tried to turn to face his foe, but Aang pressed himself close to the ninja and turned with him. Frustrated, Sasuke drew his blade and struck blindly at the airbender, but Aang ducked beneath it. While there, Bumi hissed at Aang to listen to him for a moment.

"Hey, Aang. Could you hang on to this hinge for a moment?" he asked, gesturing to the hinge on the side of the metal jacket which held him. The airbender nodded and grabbed hold. Bumi lifted his chin and suddenly the small prison stopped.

Aang watched, stunned, as the ninja flew through the air. He looked to the foot of the cage and saw a slab of rock jutting out from the slide. "You mean... you were able to earthbend this whole time?"

"Well, they didn't cover my face," Bumi said reasonably.

On the ground, Azula screamed and collapsed and Itachi turned to the other members of her group. They had already immobilized Sokka, and Juugo was cradling the young Tom-tom in his arms. Katara and Kisame were using their water techniques to ward off the others. Ty Lee managed to get behind Katara, however, and a quick succession of jabs had her down and her waterbending useless.

Mai whipped around when she heard Azula's scream, shocked at hearing such a sound from her friend. Seeing Itachi standing over her, she tossed her throwing knives, but the other man had kunai of his own, and he threw them with deadly accuracy. He deflected her knives with one wave of his own, and then pinned her to the wall with another wave. The deflected knives flew with precision to pin both Karin and Ty Lee, as well.

Suigetsu was the only one left unoccupied, now, and he hefted his large blade at the still-concealed head of Kisame. Only then did the large man take from under his cloak a large object wrapped in bandages. Katara wondered, from her prone position on the ground, what the former ninja planned to do with his zheng, but then she saw it strike the other blade and knew that was no musical instrument.

Suigetsu gaped. "Kisame Hoshigake!" he exclaimed. "To think I'd have a chance at taking another of my seniors' swords so soon!"

"Heh," Kisame laughed as the now partially revealed sharkskin blade pulsed. "You'll have to try a little harder than that to take my samehade!" The two crossed blades again while Itachi observed.

Not far away, Sasuke hit the wall. He had tumbled a fair distance, and found himself quite shaken as he got to his feet. He saw that airbender a small way in the distance and leaped onto a nearby slide and ran to meet this Avatar.

Aang, meanwhile, had listened to Bumi speak to him about the importance of neutral jin—of waiting and listening for the right moment to strike—in earthbending. He realized now that Bumi would not be his teacher. "I guess I need to find someone else to teach me earthbending."

"Your teacher will be someone who has mastered neutral jin. You need to find someone who waits and listens before striking."

Momo jumped onto Aang's shoulder and chittered at him. "Hey, Momo," Aang greeted his small friend.

Bumi grinned. "Momo's mastered a few jin, himself." He was amused at Momo's reaction, which was to screech at him and fly off. "Goodbye, Aang," he said. "I'll see you when the time is right." With that, he moved his chin and earthbent his way back up the slide, leaving Aang standing upon the bridge of rock... with Sasuke.

"Avatar," Sasuke said.

Aang turned and saw the ninja, the left side of whose face was covered in black splotched. He recoiled. "Whoa! What happened to you, buddy?"

"You're impressive," Sasuke said. "I should have known I would have to use my real power against someone like you." The black splotches moved further across his body and he removed his shirt. His hair lengthened and became lighter as the splotches melted together and faded to gray, with a black star in the middle of his face. Finally, a pair of wings that reminded the Avatar curiously of upraised hands sprouted from his back. "No more playing around," he said. "If I can beat a god... then maybe I can beat _him_!"

"Well, I wouldn't say I'm a god, but th..." Aang started, but he was forced to cut his explanation short as the monstrous ninja began his assault with blinding speed. Aang was unable to fully guard against the onslaught, sustaining numerous gashes as he tried to evade.

Sasuke landed his shin in the Avatar's gut, doubling him over, and then spun around to kick him in the face. He completed the set by leaping into the air and driving his knee into the bridge of his adversary's nose. Aang was launched off the slide and barely managed to soften his landing to nonlethal. He rose after a moment to find Sasuke again on the offensive. He slammed a wall of air into his attacker, making him back off, and took in his surroundings. Noticing a barrel of water nearby, he burst the water out of the container and used it to set up the octopus technique.

The curse sealed ninja considered his opponent. He tested the boy's moves by feinting in and out, and managed to receive some fiercer lashes than he had expected. His foe apparently had more bite than the average airbender. He stormed Aang's defenses after being satisfied that he could predict his opponent's moves, and, indeed, he dodged the waterbending whips effectively. He was caught by surprise, however, when the boy used airbending to strike him in the solar plexus, taking his breath away, and then curving the whips back to envelop him, and then freeze him.

"You," Sasuke growled. "Won't beat me!" He stared hard at Aang with his sharingan eyes, attempting to ensnare him in a genjutsu. He suddenly shattered the icy block he had been contained in and circle behind Aang, who could still see him trapped. He moved to strike a debilitating blow.

_Aang_, a familiar voice cried out to the Avatar. Look out, it seemed to say, and suddenly he knew that the ninja in front of him was an illusion. He turned and caught Sasuke's downward strike and used the momentum to flip him over hard onto his back. The hard earth beneath him cracked a little with the force of the impact. "Wow..." he said. "I almost didn't see that one coming."

"How..." Sasuke asked. "How did you overcome my sharingan?"

"Sharingan, huh?" Aang asked. "You mean you're an Uchiha? Wow... Itachi told us there were only a few of them left, now. I guess you'd be related, right?"

"Itachi..." he breathed. "My... brother?"

"Your brother!" Aang said cheerfully. "Yeah, he's a friend. He was with us, actually, but he wore a gray cloak so you probably didn't recognize him." He held out his hand to help the ninja up. "I guess... that means we don't have to fight, now, right?"

Sasuke glared darkly at the boy. "Get out of my way." He ran past Aang, and as he picked up speed his hand crackled with power.

"Uh, oh," Aang said, realizing that this guy was not looking for a happy family reunion.

Kisame parried a head cleaving strike from young Suigetsu. The young Mist ninja backed away and decided, "Warm up's over!" He grinned a sharp toothed grin. Suddenly, the muscles in his arms expanded and his flesh became taut, giving him a flayed look.

The shark faced ninja smirked. "I'm looking forward to it."

"I think that's enough," Itachi said, causing the both of them to look over at him. They noticed a cloud of dust looming behind the Uchiha. Electricity crackled in the dust cloud, and a boy in a glider raced above. The Uchiha noticed their glances and turned to see the murderous eyes of his younger brother. He sighed. It wasn't quite time, yet, but the boy was always overly tenacious.

Aang saw his friends lying prone on the ground, hurt and possibly worse. And now this monster that Sasuke Uchiha had become was barreling toward a new friend, intent on his death. And with the amount of power that teen possessed, he was likely to get it, in the monk's humble opinion. He couldn't let that happen! But he wasn't fast enough to overtake him, even with airbending speeding him through the air. He gasped as he saw Sasuke stretch out his hand toward Itachi's heart, and he could see the other making no move to stop him.

Time seemed to slow down. He knew this feeling. It was the same whenever he entered the Avatar State. He was aware, but not quite. It was as if he was outside his body looking in, but he could see and hear and smell and feel everything as if he were still inside as well. All he knew was that he wanted to stop Sasuke's advance, and his body responded with the knowledge of his collective past lives. He dropped his glider, and as he fell to the ground he moved his arms in a flowing pattern, wind spiraling around him. He landed and shot forth his arms in a solid stance more like an earthbender than anything else. A ball of air that seemed to glow at its core raced across the ground faster than Sasuke could hope to be. As the younger Uchiha's claws singed the shirt of the older, the shell of supercompressed air hit, throwing up a cloud of dust as Sasuke disappeared from his brother's sight.

Itachi looked at Aang, whose eyes and tattoos were still glowing as he channeled the Avatar Spirit. He turned to the two Mist swordsmen. "Well, I think the Avatar speaks for me in this."

Suigetsu held up his hands in defeat. "Hey, whatever you want, guys."

- - -

"So," Mai said as she walked beside Azula sitting rather fussily in her litter. "We're going to go after your brother... _and_ the Avatar?"

"It'll be interesting to see Zuko again, won't it Mai?" Ty Lee teased, and Mai blushed at the mention of her childhood boyfriend.

"_What's the matter, little sister?" Zuko asked._

"_You killed them," she said. "But... why?"_

"_Because," he said. "Without them, you're all alone. They won't bother you any more, will they?"_

"_No, but..." she stammered._

"_You hate me, don't you?" he asked._

"_No!" she said. "I would never!"_

"That's right," Azula rasped, somewhat rattled. Then she regained her composure and said, "The seven of us have two missions, now, and in order to complete them in a timely fashion, I think we should split up."

Sasuke nodded. "Three to four man cells are ideal in tracking missions," he recited. "The Avatar and my older brother will pose the biggest threat, and thus a four man team is necessary."

"Big threat," Suigetsu muttered. "I'll say, even with all of us we got our asses handed to us."

Sasuke glowered at the Mist ninja. "I will lead the group that takes the Avatar," he said. "I need Juugo, Suigetsu and Ty Lee with me."

Karin balked. "H-hey, what about me? I never agreed to take orders from her!"

Sasuke ignored her. "We will be known for this mission as Team Snake," he announced.

"Mai, Karin, and myself," Azula went on, "Will be known as Team Phoenix. We will pursue my brother."


	5. Connections

**Elements of War**

**Chapter 04  
Connections  
**

The townsfolk were worried. They had been hearing tales for days about a bandit in the area. They had all thought anyone would be smart enough to be discreet with their money. But now this... this could only cause trouble.

An ornate procession made its way down the main street. Men carried statues of gold and silk banners. In the center of it all was an older man bedecked with riches unlike any of the peasants had ever seen. He sat with what they assumed was his grandson, also finely dressed, and they carried on loudly as if there wasn't another soul in the city. Oh, yes, they were trouble.

The old man signaled for the parade to stop suddenly, and he walked down a staircase of men's backs to the ground. Wandering over to the side of the street where several poor vagabonds sat, he found one boy in particular who seemed the worse for wear. "That's a nasty scar you have, son," the old man said loudly enough for people across the way to hear. "Looks like you had a run in with an angry firebender!"

"Yes," the boy said. "I did."

The old man inquired. "So tell me... what's your name?"

"..." the young man paused, as if trying to remember. "It's Li," he said, finally.

"Aah," the old man said. "Well, you look like you're having a hard time of it right now, son." He pulled out a bag of coins. "So how about some gold coins to hold you over?"

Li looked balefully at the man, as if insulted by the gesture, but he said, "I could use them."

"Well, you'll have to earn them," the man said. "I want you to give me a little show!" He continued to wave the pouch around.

"I'm no performer," the boy said with a hint of anger in his voice.

"Aw, c'mon, I'll give you two bags!"

"No!"

"Come on, gramps!" the man's grandson shouted. "Leave the guy alone and let's get on with it!"

"Aw, fine," the man conceded and turned to leave. "But don't say I didn't try!"

Zuko watched the procession depart, grinding his teeth at such humiliation. To think that these people would think he would stoop so low as to beg for money. Or, worse, to shame himself for money. No, he did need money, but he would earn it. He would work for it. He felt the twin broadswords hidden beneath a blanket. And maybe he would deflate the ego of a certain rich blowhard.

"Geez, pervy sage," Naruto growled at the bejeweled Jiraiya. "Why'd you have to tease that guy like that? That wasn't very nice."

"Look, Naruto," the old man explained. "We were lent these fine riches so that we could attract attention. Granted, a parade will do that, but it's even better when you make a scene like that. Further, by doing that I gave a picture of someone who is very loose with his cash, which is very tempting, and also painted myself as an unsympathetic figure, which will make it easier for our target to go after us." He looked at the still frowning face of his pupil. "Okay, look, after we get paid, I'll treat the guy for the trouble. Assuming we can find him. Didn't seem like he was a stable guy."

After a few moments, Jiraiya halted the procession once more, announcing loudly. "Alright! I'm going into this dark alleyway to take a giant piss! No one follow me because I'm self conscious, and don't worry about any strange noises, that'll just be my kidney stones!" The guards sighed loudly at the display. The disparity between pay and the moose-lion fodder they had to put up with occurred in many of their minds. "Come on, Naruto, let's go!" the old man said as he pulled the blond boy into the alley.

"I thought you said you were self conscious," Naruto protested as he disappeared into the darkness that grew deeper as the sun set.

After they had entered the alley, Jiraiya whispered in a low voice to his student. "You feel it, Naruto?"

"Yeah, it looks like someone finally took the bait," the blond responded in kind.

"Whatever you do, keep your eyes and ears open," Jiraiya reminded the genin. "Don't let yourself get caught by sur—" Swish, swish, swish. Suddenly the Toad Sage found himself with his pants around his ankles and the bags of coin he was carrying lifted from his waist. "Oops."

Naruto saw the attacker, a man clad all in black except for a blue lion-turtle mask. He carried two broadswords and now two bags of gold. The genin leaped for the attacker and kicked at him, only to meet thin air as the clone vanished. An illusion, he realized, the most basic kind of clone taught at the academy, too. He spun around and saw more and he struck at them, causing each to vanish upon contact until finally one of the Blue Spirit's caught his leg and spun him to the ground.

The Blue Spirit leaped up the walls with the blond ninja soon in hot pursuit.

- - -

High above an expansive forested area, Aang and his friends flew through gray, cloudy skies. Katara was attempting to study her scroll with little success. Kisame sat a small distance from her and glanced at the scroll over her shoulder. "Well, well," he said. "That's quite an interesting document you have there."

"Yeah," she said. "The Mizukage gave it to me."

Kisame looked a little shocked. "Mizukage? You mean the Shadow of the Bloody Mist?" He grinned. "How interesting. So he gave you a scroll of some of Mist Village's most secret techniques, eh?"

"I... I guess so," Katara said. "But it's partially for Aang, so I can teach him. And he's the Avatar."

"You know," the water ninja said, "When I was a young genin like yourself, I tried to take that very scroll."

"Really?"

"Yep. And when Mizukage found out... well, he sentenced me to death."

Katara almost dropped the scroll she was so stunned. "Death?"

"That's right. You see, the contents of that scroll are important to our survival, and it's even more important that the scroll's contents never fall into the hands of outsiders. If a genin were to be captured with that kind of knowledge, however, a skilled interrogator would likely be able to get the secrets out of him or her. That's why those are only to be taught to chunin."

"So... what happened?"

"Oh, well, I killed my executioners, so Mizukage instead promoted me to chunin!" the ninja said with a grin.

Katara gulped. This was heavy stuff, apparently. She looked at the grinning fish man. He killed his executioners, huh? That was understandable, she figured, as it was pretty much him or them. She knew the ninja of the Hidden Mist were traditionally raised to be cold killers, but she had to ask herself if she really should be associating with the kind of people who could be so ruthless, and seemingly without so much as a shred of guilt.

"Hey, you takin' us down for a reason?" Sokka said, interrupting Katara from her thoughts. Looking at Aang, he seemed to be nonresponsive. "Aang!" the watertribe boy said once more, and the nomad flinched. "Why are we going down?"

"What?" the airbender asked, wiping his forehead. "I didn't even notice."

"Well, are you noticing now?" Sokka asked sarcastically.

"Is something wrong?" Katara asked, concerned.

Aang looked down on the green overgrowth below with a curious expression on his face. "I know this is going to sound weird, but... it feels like the swamp is calling me."

"Is it telling you were we can get something to eat?" Sokka asked hungrily.

"No," Aang responded. "I... I think it wants us to land there."

"No offense to the swamp," Sokka informed his young friend. "But I don't really see any land there to land on."

"I don't know," Aang said. "Bumi said in order to learn earthbending I would have to wait and listen, and now I'm actually hearing the earth. Do you want me to ignore it?"

"Yes!"

"I don't know," Katara said. "There's something ominous about this place."

Momo and Appa voiced their own sounds of disapproval concerning their course. "See?" Sokka pointed out. "Even Appa and Momo don't like it here."

"Alright," Aang conceded. "Since everyone feels so strongly about this..." he shook Appa's reigns and shouted "Yip! Yip!" and the bison sped away, climbing back into the clouds. Suddenly it began to rain. Katara and Kisame used waterbending to move the water around them, but then they heard something else.

"You better throw in an extra 'yip!'" Sokka shouted as he spotted a huge twister on their flank. "We gotta move!" He tried to evade the tornado, but it almost seemed that the winds had a sentience, following his ever weave and dodge. It overtook them, pulling them into the vortex, and while Aang did his best to airbend a pathway out, his efforts were in vain, and the riders and mount were pulled apart.

- - -

Naruto chased after the thief. He wasn't much of a ninja if even that. It seemed he didn't know much more than basic bunshin and substitution techniques. It was pretty simple to overtake him. He managed to tackle the Blue Spirit from behind, taking him to the ground.

"Alright, Blue Spirit," Naruto said. "You're coming with me."

The other said nothing, but instead bucked Naruto off of him, spinning to his feet. He pulled his broadswords and began to whirl them about him as he advanced on the young ninja. Naruto summoned shadow clones, an advanced form of the Blue Spirit's replicas, but every one of them possessing a true physical form and a portion of Naruto's own chakra energy. The Spirit mowed down a significant portion of these duplicates, but his technique was seen through by the time he got to the last three. He was tripped and pummeled into the air. He landed on the ground, shaken, but he wouldn't give up yet.

"I'm no pushover," Naruto said. "Especially not by a punk like you." He and his clones huddled up and began to form a small rasengan, a spiraling sphere of spirit and physical power, but it was only enough to knock out an average fighter. The masked thief swung his swords again, this time with flames enveloping the blades.

"Are you sure my brother is here?" The two opponents paused when they heard the voice.

"Positive. I can track anyone's unique chakra energy within a mile... even more accurately if I'm familiar with the person. Prince Zuko is nearby, we just have to find him."

The Blue Spirit suddenly shot forth, surprising Naruto. He dispersed his clones and struck at the thief. The masked man tackled the ninja, pushing him back toward the edge of the roof, but Naruto shoved the rasengan into the Spirit's face, forcing them away from each other and knocking the mask away. Before Naruto went over the roof, he recognized the face of the Blue Spirit. It was that of the scarred boy, Li.

Karin found herself suddenly on the ground, with a heavy weight on top of her. The weight squirmed, grinding her face into the dirt, and finally relieved her of itself. "Wh-what the Hell was that?" she grunted as she lifted herself off the ground. She turned to see a sheepish blond boy standing over her. "Is... is that your brother?" she asked.

"No," Azula said plainly. "He's much too good looking to be my brother." She ignored the aggravated glance Mai gave her.

"Uh... sorry about that, ladies, I was just, uh... trying to capture someone and he, ah, surprised me."

Azula looked sternly at the boy, and then looked up at the roof from where the boy had fallen. She leaped up to see what was really going on. It couldn't be her brother, could it? When she got there, she saw a man fastening a cracked blue mask to his face. When he looked at her, she recognized the mask as belonging to the infamous criminal, Blue Spirit, who had not only freed the Avatar, but had raided several Fire Nation outposts, to say nothing of his rash of thefts in the Earth Kingdom, proper. "Well, well. Not who I was hoping for, but I suppose I might as well make a little detour." She could always catch up to her brother, later, after all.

Mai and Karin joined her on the roof promptly, and also spotted the criminal, who had finally noticed them, as well. Mai unsheathed her knives as Karin cracked her knuckles, preparing for a fight.

- - -

It was dark deep under the canopy of the swamp, and rain fell in a light sheet, just enough to make Aang uncomfortable. He had been separated from the others, it seemed, and he had been making his way through the trees for awhile, now. He could definitely feel some kind of presence here. In fact, he realized, he could hear it. Someone was laughing. He looked to his side and saw a girl standing upon a tree branch, dressed in white. A flying pig hovered beside her. She turned to him, her eyes sightless, and she smiled.

Then she disappeared. Maybe Sokka was right, Aang thought.

In another part of the swamp, Katara had just spotted a woman in the distance. "Hello! Hello! Can you help me?" she shouted. Just then Katara noticed the familiar clothes and hair. "Mom?" and she picked up speed. "Mom!" Touching her hand to the woman's shoulder, she said, "I can't believe..." her smile faded as she felt rough wood under her touch, and she realized the woman whom she thought she had seen was nothing but a tree stump. It had been an illusion.

Katara fell to her knees and began to sob.

In yet another part of the swamp, Itachi walked purposefully through the wetland, unintimidated by the aura of sentience about the place. He knew exactly what was here. He saw a familiar figure in the distance, and paused. "Shisui..." he said, allowing himself a moment's sadness.

"Itachi," the man said. He was wet, bloodied, and bloated with water, his skin looking as if it were going to simply fall off his bones. Just like he had looked when his body had been fished out of the river. "You did this to me, Itachi." He covered the distance between them in the blink of an eye, a technique that even Itachi had a hard time following. Shisui clamped his hand down on the young man's throat. "Foolish little brother," he growled. "You sacrificed your best friend, your family, and your happiness. And for what? Power?"

Itachi shook his head. "No. Peace." He drew a katana from his cloak and slashed the image of his former best friend, the man he'd looked up to as an older brother, in two. "And I'd do it again in order to protect my village from your plots." He moved onward, now feeling more acutely the discomfort associated with this place. Why had he even said that much to an illusion? But, then, he supposed illusions were the only things to whom he could tell the truth. "I hate coming here," he finally admitted.

Sokka slashed through the vines, intent on finding the others. "Aang! Katara!" he shouted. "Itachi! Fish guy?" He paused upon seeing a glowing apparition before him. This did not look good. "Yue?" He shook his head. "No way, this is just a trick of the light... swamp gas. Or maybe I'm insane." He walked over to her, curiously, hoping she would just vanish like most mirages.

"You didn't protect me," she said. Then she vanished.

Sokka shook his head. Well, she vanished like he'd hoped. He could have done without that parting shot though. He wandered away somewhat dazed.

Kisame walked across the swamp water. "Hm... pleasant stroll," he said. "Hope everyone else is okay." In the distance, he spotted familiar faces. "Oh." He came to a halt. "Hey! Due! Tho!" he greeted cheerily.

"Hey, Fish guy!" the heavy set man, Tho, greeted.

"How's it goin'?" the skinnier and taller man, Due, asked conversationally.

"Oh, just fine. You?"

"Good, good."

"Hey," Tho suggested. "What say we get on outta here back to HQ?"

"Sounds good," the pallor skinned man agreed.

- - -

The Blue Spirit parried Mai's daggers as he fled. The three girls were relentless in their pursuit however. As he ducked down an alleyway, however, the knife thrower finally hit her mark, pinning the thief to a wall. The Blue Spirit struggled to free himself, but Azula and her team were there before he could accomplish anything.

"Well, then, Mr. Blue Spirit," Azula said sweetly. "Let's see who you really are." She reached for his mask, and behind it, cold sweat poured down Zuko's face.

"Hold it!" shouted Naruto from the alley's entrance.

"What's this?" Azula said mockingly. "The little boy wants to play?"

Karin snorted. "Who are you, anyway? I owe you for landing on my head."

The blond ninja puffed himself up and grinned confidently. "Me? I'm the student of the Toad Sage and the guy whose gonna be the next Hokage! I'm the great Naruto!"

"You mean like the bridge?" Azula asked incredulously.

"Heh, heh, heh. That's right. That was named after me! I was the guy who helped bring down the Demon Zabuza and and Boss Gato!"

Azula recalled Suigetsu saying something about Sasuke being on the team that defeated Zabuza. That meant that this guy much have been on the same team. Of course, she reasoned, Sasuke had betrayed his hidden village in order to join with the rogue ninja, Orochimaru. Looking the boy up and down, she could see his boastfulness was a ruse hiding extreme insecurity and feelings of loneliness. A person like that would take the betrayal of a teammate very hard, but she could tell he was an optimist. He probably blindly held on to the hope that he could change Sasuke's mind.

"Don't get in our way," Azula said, "And maybe I'll take you to see Sasuke."

Naruto's face went stone still. "What?"

Flames wafted from behind Zuko's mask. Sasuke. That was the name of the guy who killed his uncle. He wasn't going to rest until he had his revenge.

"You know where Sasuke is?" Naruto asked. "Where? Tell me."

"Don't cause any trouble for us," Azula responded. "And I'll tell you. In fact, I'll send him right here once I get back."

Naruto stared at them for a long moment. The princess could see a violent mixture of hope, rage, happiness, and despair surging in him. Then she saw anger take center stage. "You're lying," he growled.

"Hm. I guess you're too smart to be my brother, too," Azula sighed.

"I'm not letting you take Li," Naruto said. "But you _will_ tell me where Sasuke is!"

"Li, is it?" Azula pondered, looking at the cracked mask of the Blue Spirit. "Hmm. Well, if you _must_ know, I suppose there's no harm in telling you. Sasuke is helping me with a little problem with the Avatar."

"The Avatar, huh?" Naruto repeated. "So who's that?"

The princess rolled her eyes. "Well, maybe I did overestimate your intelligence. The Avatar is the one guy who can learn all forms of bending, and who is reincarnated in a different nation every time the last Avatar dies. The current one is an air nomad who's been frozen for a hundred years."

This certainly struck a chord with Naruto. An air nomad? He felt in his pocket, feeling a scroll he had there. That was certainly a coincidence. "I see. Well, I guess that just leaves one more thing." His hands blurred in a sequence of hand seals and twenty nine clones formed behind him.

"I'm glad," Azula said. "I was getting bored, anyway." She stepped forward and shot her fist forward, a blue flame blooming from her.

In the swamp, Kisame approached a man garbed in a similar cloak to his own. The man meditated in a veritable fortress atop the branches of a giant tree. "Lord Pein," he said. The man turned, revealing his numerous facial piercings and, more disturbingly, his red, multi-irised eyes. "What's up?"

"You've brought your friends?" Pein asked.

"Just as you asked," Kisame told him. "They were right where you said they'd be."

"Good," the man said. "I feel him. I want to see him." He raised his hand. "The swamp will bring him to me."

Back in the village, Naruto and his clones found themselves being blown about by Azula's flame. Karin was having quite a bit of fun beating a number of them bare knuckle. Mai didn't bother worrying about lethality as she skewered a number of clones, causing them to dissipate in a puff of smoke.

The real Naruto created a full rasengan and charged Azula. The princess, herself, summoned a bolt of lightning to her fingertips and released it as the ninja reached for her with his spiraling chakra energy in his palm. The electricity struck the rasengan, disrupting the flow of energy. The sphere burst as the bolt passed through it and into Naruto's palm, down his right arm and to the ground through his left side. He found himself tossed back a significant distance and very stunned.

"Well, that was quick," Azula teased. "So much for the great Naruto."

The boy rose, looking at his blackened hand and back at the princess. "It's not over yet." He pulled a set of shuriken from his coat and brandished them. "I haven't even broken a sweat." He tossed the shuriken, but they were shot down by Mai. The boy rushed Azula in the confusion, and gave Azula a solid left hook to the face.

The princess was stunned by the blunt attack. However, she recovered quickly and proceeded to protect herself from a barrage of strikes, then countered with a few solid pressure point strikes of her own. As he backed away, she quipped, "Didn't your mommy ever teach you that you shouldn't hit girls?"

"Shows what you really know about me," Naruto growled. "I never _had_ a mother!" He reared back and gave her a haymaker, though she caught his arm and flipped him onto his back. His torso broke in two, sending splinters across the princess' face. It was a two-by-four.

_I must really be losing it_, she thought. _Now I've started mistaking pieces of wood for people…_

Naruto kidney punched Azula, then proceeded to hammer his fists into her body, pushing her back. As he approached the alley wall, she dodged, letting him thrust his fist into it. An instant later, Mai's dagger pinned his arm. Karin then proceeded to punch him in the face, staggering him.

Azula wiped a trickle of blood from her chin and spat. She waved Karin away and stood smuggly before the pinned ninja. "Well, what do you say, boy? You should give up now before we have to hurt you anymore."

The blond ninja sneered. "I never give up without a fight!" he declared.

_A tear rolled down her scar-stiffened cheek, burning as it went. She unsheathed the dagger and ran her eyes up and down the cold steel. _Never Give Up Without A Fight._ It was Zuko's dagger, she realized. What an irony. She held the blade to her throat._

The Fire Princess felt a cold ball of ice gather in her stomach. She felt dizzy, woozy. _Yeah_, she thought, _definitely losing it. Come on, pull yourself together, Azula. You won't let yourself become a pitiful flake like Zuko. _ She recovered herself and the ice melted before the hot flames of her anger. "Well, you're quite a feisty guy, but I think I can fix that." She felt the heat build in her arm as she prepared to attack. Suddenly, she felt something... prickly... around her wrist. Looking at it, she saw what looked like some kind of white, furry bracelet. Looking further down, she saw that this "bracelet" was attached to the back of an old man's head. "Who?"

The old man retracted his ponytail from Azula's arm and spun it about his head in a highly choreographed movement. He posed upon his large toad and announced. "Introducing the suave sage of the three legendary ninja of Konoha... the gallant Ji-rai-ya!"

"Hmph," Azula grunted. "I've had enough of stupid old men."

"Oh, really?" Jiraiya asked smugly. "Well, this old man is smart enough to realize that the guy you were fighting over is already gone."

Azula looked over to the wall on which the Blue Spirit had been pinned. He was, indeed, no longer there. "Flying hogmonkeys!"

- - -

Aang hopped up the gigantic tree, searching the trunk for signs of his friends. He had been seeing apparitions all night, and though he didn't know if they were real or false, he trusted his instincts and followed where they led. And that was here. In the midst of the branches, he saw that there was something that seemed man made. It was a building of stone and wood that fit within the tree like they had grown together.

The Avatar stepped onto a patio and walked through the archway and into a large room. Inside, he saw a heavyset man with dark skin and gray hair, adorned with facial piercings meditating. Aang also noticed that the clothing the man was wearing was similar to the one Kisame had when he first met him, though these were far less ragged and dirty. The man opened his eyes as the boy walked forward, and the young airbender paused as he saw the red multi irises. "Who... who are you?"

"I... am Pein."

"Pain?" Aang asked. "That doesn't sound very pleasant."

"Pein is an illusion," the man replied.

"Uh... right... so why did you call me here?"

"I didn't, but I do have reason to speak with you."

"You didn't? Then who did?"

"The swamp, of course. You see, this whole swamp is actually just this one banion tree spread out over miles. Branches spread, sink, and take root and then spread some more – one big living organism, just like the entire world."

"Okay, I get that the tree is one big organism," Aang conceded. "But the whole world?"

At that moment, Katara entered from a doorway. She spotted Aang and called to him, happily. "I thought I'd never find you!"

"Katara!" Aang exclaimed. "How did you get here?"

"I don't know," the waterbender said. "I kept... seeing things, so I followed my visions until I ended up here."

"The swamp is subtle, but it will always get you where you need to be," Pein said sagely. The next moment, a tangle of vines burst through the same archway Aang had come through, shocking the two youths. It deposited a slimy blob on the floor and then retreated as swiftly as it came. The blob stood, bearing an almost human shape, and flailed about.

"Where's that swamp monster?" It demanded. "Where? I'll hack it to pieces!"

"Of course," Pain admitted. "There are some for whom subtlety is never an option."

Sokka wiped the swamp juice from his face and glared at the man. "So this is your doing, huh? What was the deal siccing that... creature on me?"

Pein laughed. "That was no creature," he said. "That was just a mess of vines. I bend the water in them to make them move. You weren't really responding to the swamp's illusions, so I figured it would be quicker just to pick you up." The old man pointed at the boy. "By the way, there's an elbow leech attached to you."

"Where? Where?" Sokka squealed.

"Where do you think?" Katara asked as she looked pointedly at the large, pulsating worm sucking on his elbow.

Sokka pulled it off and tossed it out the window with disgust. "Why do things keep attaching themselves to me?"

"So..." Aang continued. "You never explained why you brought us here?"

"Yes, I suppose I should clarify." he raised his hand in a beckoning gesture, and Kisame and Itachi entered, wearing the same clean black and red cloaks. "I sent my boys, here, to keep an eye on you," he said. "You see, as I was saying earlier, the whole world is like this swamp. Just one big organism. You think you're any different from me? Or your friends? Or this tree? If you listen hard enough you can hear every living thing breathing together, you can feel everything growing. We're all livin' together, even if most folks don't act like it. We all have the same roots, and we are all branches of the same tree."

"I understand that," Katara said. "But what about those visions? I saw my mother, and she's been dead for years!"

"In the swamp we see visions of people we've lost, people we loved," Pein said. "Folks we think are gone. But the swamp tells us they're not. We're still connected to 'em. Time is an illusion, and so is death."

"But what about my vision?" Aang asked. "It was someone I had never met."

Pein smiled at the airbender. "You're the Avatar. Tell me."

Aang was pensive for a moment, and then he realized, "Time is an illusion... so it's... someone I will meet."

"You're beginning to understand," Pein said.

"Is that why you brought us here?" Aang asked. "Just to teach us that?"

"Well, there is that," Pein conceded. "You see, I want to help you. Itachi, Kisame, and I are all a part of a group called Akatsuki, or Daybreak, which stretches across the borders of the nations. We believe that no nation is better than any other, and unfortunately the people of the Fire Nation have lost sight of that." His red eyes bore into Aang with great intensity. "I hope that you, as the Avatar, can help us unite the world instead of divide it as the Fire Nation seeks to, with one group conquerin' or wiping out another."

"I see," Aang said. "I guess I can understand that."

Pein nodded. "That's good." He turned to Kisame and Itachi. "But I'm afraid there was another reason. Seems I need Itachi and Kisame here to help me out with a little somethin'. We've got plans in motion that'll knock the Fire Nation on its keester."

- - -

Naruto and Jiraiya quietly left the town they had just paraded through last night on foot, unfortunately unpaid and underfed. However, as they left, a figure followed, unknown to them.

That kid was looking for Sasuke, too, Zuko thought. The shinobi had split up from his sister for some reason, but it was obvious that she probably wasn't going to join back up with him until she captured him. He couldn't just let himself get capture by Azula. There was no way he would be able to escape if that were to happen. Perhaps the best plan was following these guys for now, then.

- - -

Itachi watched the young trio ride into the sky on Appa. He pulled out his head protector, a scratch etched prominently through the leaf symbol. He remembered when that mark had been made. "You're no son of mine," his father had said as he crouched amidst the corpses of his fallen kinsmen. "You're no Uchiha. You're one of them. One of the Leaf!" Then his father had attacked him with his sword, knowing that he would never be able to beat his son. His only intent, it seemed, was to blemish the symbol of the village Itachi loved, just as Itachi had blemished the sign of the Uchiha.

The young man sighed. He had more important things to worry about, now. Obligations to more than his family, more than the village, and certainly more than the Akatsuki. He tied his forehead protector on and joined Kisame as they began their own trek away from the small Rain Village that served as Akatsuki headquarters.

"So you think that little kid and his friends are going to be trouble concerning Akatsuki's goals?" Kisame asked.

"Possibly," the young man said. "But not without help." He turned to his partner and said. "By the way, there's something I need to do before we get started."


	6. Bitter Memories

**Elements of War**

**Chapter 05  
Bitter Memories  
**

Azula walked down the corridor of the Fire Palace. How did she get here, she thought. She had just been in the Earth Kingdom, right? No, she decided, that must have been a dream. She was only six years old, and though she was already a skilled firebender, her daddy would never let her go somewhere like that.

She passed a window and looked out at the red sky. It was sure a nice night, she thought. The moon shown like a ruby in the firmament. A cat yowled plaintively from down the hall. She turned and saw the feline staring at her with glowing blue eyes from the shadows. She backed away, a bolt of fear racing through her. She suddenly backed into her best friends Mai and Ty Lee.

She felt relieved that they were there. They were always fun to play with and to learn from, and soon she knew she would be better than they were. However, the two girls backed away from her, as if frightened of something. "What's the matter?"

Mai threw her collection of knives at the young princess. What was this, treason? She dodged and scowled. The pale girl back away. "Get away from us, you monster!" Ty Lee took an offensive stance.

"We don't want anything to do with you," Ty Lee said. "You gonna do something about it?"

The princess decided she would. She would teach these traitors what it meant to betray her. She struck at Mai first, intending to burn her a little. She was sure that a bit of pain would set her straight. But nothing but a small blue spark came out. What was going on? She launched a kick at Ty Lee, but her leg suddenly caught fire. Blue flames spread over her leg and across her body and she couldn't control it. Azula felt the hot embers on her skin, burning it to her nerve endings, and she knew pain like she had never before. She was being burned alive.

But she didn't die. She kept on living, hobbling through the palace with burn scars all over her body. The servants looked at her with fear and disgust. Her own mother called her a monster. "Please," she asked her mother. "I'll be a good girl! Just don't leave me." But her mother would always walk away, disgusted.

"You are weak," a new voice said. It was her father, she realized. She struggled to her feet, feeling the damage her friend had caused her body, making her unable to move with the fluidity she had before.

"Daddy," she pleaded. "They hurt me! Please help!"

Ozai strode forward, his face ominously in shadow. "There is no help for you. And you are no use to me in this pathetic condition."

She watched her older brother with his perfect moves and perfect skin train with their father. "That's my boy," her father would tell him. Zuko was the only one who was kind to her, who showed her empathy. Soon she felt that she couldn't live without her dear older brother. Even though she hated him for all he had, now, all that could have been hers, she loved him more than anything.

Then one day she found the halls of the palace covered in blood. Servants' bodies were strewn all over the place, their stench making Azula gag. Even the bodies of Ty Lee and Mai lay tangled and bloody. She hobbled on toward the throne room, her old injuries causing her constant pain. Opening the doors, she saw her mother and father knelt before a man clad in black. He held two broadswords and lifted one into a striking position. He swept the blade across her parents' necks, severing their heads.

Azula watched the heads roll across the floor, horrified. But it was alright. She still had her brother. All these people dead meant nothing. She looked back at the man and he turned, face still in shadow. But then the shadow lifted and she saw her brother with a cruel smirk in his eyes.

"What's the matter, little sister?" Zuko asked.

"You killed them," she said. "But... why?"

"Because," he said. "Without them, you're all alone. They won't bother you any more, will they?"

"No, but..." she stammered.

"You hate me, don't you?" he asked.

"No!" she said. "I would never!"

"You're a monster," he said. "It's in your nature to hate. To destroy. Everything you touch will be turned to ash, and you will be the lord of ashes."

Her brother made a horrible face and his blades began to spin in his hands. He advanced, and she took a step back. She couldn't stop him from killing her. She was powerless, now, and had been for years. She felt the tips of the blade scratch her flesh and she flinched, but then they stopped. She looked up to see Zuko holding the swords to his neck and side respectively.

"Survive," he told her. "Live miserably." Then he plunged the blades through himself and collapsed on the floor.

Azula traveled the Fire Nation for years after that, looking for anyone who would take her in. But any she came across reviled her. They shunned her. She was nothing to them. So she burned them and their hateful country to the ground. Then she really was alone.

"You can end it," came the voice. "You can make it all go away."

"I want to make it go away," Azula cried. "I'm all alone. I'm powerless. There's nothing left for me!"

A shadow reached out to her, handing her a dagger in a sheath. "Take it. You know what to do."

She took the dagger and stared at it: sweet liberation. A tear rolled down her scar-stiffened cheek, burning as it went. She unsheathed the dagger and ran her eyes up and down the cold steel. _Never Give Up Without A Fight_. It was Zuko's dagger, she realized. What an irony. She held the blade to her throat. It wasn't as cold as she thought. In fact, it was a bit warm. It bit into her flesh. She had nothing to live for. There was no point in going on, now. She just wanted to give up.

_Never Give Up Without A Fight_. Her hands relaxed on the blade. Why couldn't she do it? She willed her hands to press forward. To slip the metal into her jugular. But it wouldn't go. Why? She tossed the damnable blade aside. "No!" she screamed as she felt the pain in her chest, so much greater than that external pain, clamp down and drag her into the abyss. She screamed again, like a wounded animal waiting to die.

- - -

Azula woke up screaming. Again. It had been happening every night since she had met that man. Sasuke's brother. She had told Mai and Karin not to disturb her if they heard her screaming after the first couple nights. She couldn't bear to have them see her in such a frightful state. She was shaking and sweat poured off her body.

The princess rose and stepped out of her large tent. She could tell that the other two were awake in their own tents; how could they not be after her screaming her head off again. However, they knew it was just her nightmares and that she would not tolerate being bothered.

What kind of power did the Uchiha have, she wondered as she walked to a nearby stream to wash her face. It was as if he had entered her mind and plucked her greatest, most secret fears from her mind and put them on display, making them seem more real than reality. She still expected her movements to be hindered by internal damage, and was relieved to find that her face was still undamaged when she leaned over the water and saw her reflection.

Itachi was like a poison in her veins, she realized. He had done this intentionally, in order to weaken her until she was faltering as badly as she had in that other life he had made for her. He truly was devious, she realized, a fact that she found both frightening and attractive. But she would not let this curse be a bane to her. She would simply become stronger than the dream.

Meanwhile, in the Fire Nation Capital half a world away, Orochimaru stood in the throne room of Fire Lord Ozai. The ruler of the Fire Nation was back lit by roaring flames, which would normally strike fear into the hearts of enemies and subjects alike, a fact which suited Ozai just fine, but this rogue ninja was not normal by any means. He stood before the Fire Lord with a casual ease, smirking confidently as he reported Iroh's capture.

"This is good," Ozai said. "I am glad that I hired you for this task. From the description of the battle, my brother could have escaped my daughter alone." He frowned. "Zuko is no great threat, however. I'm sure your services won't be required in his capture."

"True," Orochimaru granted. "However, you may want to consider this. I received word just recently that Sasuke and your daughter encountered the Avatar while gathering team members for their endeavors. It seems that he is now traveling with two high ranking members of the Daybreak organization."

"Akatsuki?" Ozai exclaimed. "I can't believe the Avatar would work with a criminal organization of that kind."

"These are desperate times for the Avatar," Orochimaru said. "He knows that Sozin's comet is due back this summer, and is only the master of his native element. It's only the most practical thing to do."

Ozai nodded. "Yes. It seems I may need you for a little while longer, after all. If you can destroy the Avatar, I will double your pay. If you capture him alive, I will triple it."

"That sounds wonderful, Lord Ozai," the snake sage said. "I will be sure to meet your expectations." The snake ninja turned and strode out of the throne room.

The Fire Lord pondered the rogue. "Never trust a ninja..."

Elsewhere in the city, Iroh sat in his cell, the warden keeping watch. "Look at you," the warden observed of the old man, who was currently slumped in the corner of his cell staring blankly into space with an expression of perpetual awe. "You used to be the pride of The Fire Nation. Our top general. The Dragon of the West. Now you're a disgrace. "

Iroh remained unresponsive.

"Hmph. You're just a fat, disgusting old man. You do nothing, you say nothing. You just eat and roll around in your own filth like a pig. To think we all used to look up to you."

Iroh's eyes suddenly seemed to become lucid, and his gaze slid over to the warden.

"What's this?" the warden asked smugly. "Did something finally get through that scrambled skull of yours? Did I finally hit a ner—huckh!" The warden fell backward onto the stone floor, unconscious.

The former general sprang into action, grabbing the bars and bending them apart with little difficulty. He strode out of the cell, taking a thick bed sheet out of his robe, revealing his chiseled physique. "Well, well. I wasn't planning on escaping quite so soon, but it is good to see you."

"You've gotten back into shape quickly," said a voice from the shadows.

"Yes, well," Iroh explained. "That's due to my workout and diet plan. Maybe I'll give you a few pointers, sometime, my boy."

"I don't think that will be necessary."

Iroh laughed. "That's probably true. Well, I guess we had better prepare to break ourselves out of this place."

"No problem. I have already neutralized the resistance."

"You do think of everything... aside from letting an old man have his fun. I hope you didn't do anything rash like kill them."

"No need. That would have taken far too much effort. I simply filled the halls with a knockout gas."

"Good thinking," said Iroh as he opened the door. The shadowy figure followed. They raced down the corridors of the prison, hopping over the snoozing guards as they went. They were almost to the exit when suddenly a familiar figure slithered through the doorway.

"My, my, General Iroh," Orochimaru said. "What chiseled abs you have?"

"Ahh, yes... well, you know... you never go soft in prison."

"I do know," the snake sage responded. "And you have a friend. Who could this be?"

"We don't have time for delay, Orochimaru," the shadowy figure said, his eyes reflecting ruby from the darkness.

The Sound country leader froze as he saw those eyes. "It's... you! Itachi!" He grinned. "I've been waiting for the day I could defeat you!" Snakes shot out of the snake sage's hands, wrapping around the Uchiha. However, Orochimaru quickly realized that it was now he who was wrapped in his own serpents. He looked toward the door, seeing the two escape and he hissed, "Curses! Not again!"

After running a few miles into the forest, the two rogues stopped. Itachi sat down at the base of a large tree and Iroh joined him. "Master Iroh," Itachi said. "I have news."

"Good," the general said. "Speak."

"Your nephew is surviving," he said. "He seems to have taken up thievery in order to obtain basic supplies... and a few luxury items. However, when I last received a report, he had been following two members of the Hidden Leaf: Jiraiya and the container of the Nine Tails, Naruto."

"Zuko always has had a knack for finding trouble. And following it no matter how hard trouble tries to lose him."

Itachi smiled faintly at that. Then he continued, "Sasori and his partner will soon launch operations against the One Tail. Hidan and Kakuzu are still unaware of the Two Tails' identity, but they may be getting close. They've already tracked the Nibi to the Cloud Village."

"I see," Iroh said. "I have to admit, I would be sad to see the cat's host be captured, though she has proven to be dangerous in the past..."

"Concerning the Avatar, Akatsuki is keeping an eye on him. He is considered a potential threat to their plan, considering the innate ability of Avatars to seal and control the Bijuu." His eyes narrowed as he considered something. "I thought Madara might have caught on to me, but I believe it was he who told Pain to assign Kisame and me to Aang. Therefore... I am not sure if he suspects that I am a member of the Order of the White Lotus."

- - -

Itachi raced through the trees outside Konoha, still struggling with the tears in his eyes. He didn't have time to mourn, now, though. Anbu was after him. He had disobeyed orders, for his little brother was still alive. However, now he knew that his brother would hate him, and not the village, as he had explained to the village council moments before. If he remained anything less than a wanted fugitive, however, his brother would possibly come to resent the Leaf, and so the Anbu was told to pursue and execute the perpetrator of the genocide of the Uchiha. No one else in Anbu ever knew of this plan except for Danzou, himself. They all believed he had truly betrayed Konoha by killing his family. And that was how he wanted it.

He took out a few more of the black ops with his shuriken, disabling them by catching them in their legs. However, he was at a slight disadvantage. He had used his newly formed mangekyou sharingan quite a bit this night, and his eyes were no longer up to the task of transforming even into his normal sharingan. Unfortunately, one of his pursuers did have a sharingan, even if it was not as efficient as one possessed of an Uchiha.

Kakashi, not much older than the thirteen year old rogue Anbu agent, leaped in front of him and charged, the sound of chirping birds filling the canopy. Itachi tried to dodge, but he was sluggish and Kakashi was still fresh, and his lightning blade pierced his shoulder. They both toppled down to the forest floor below.

"Why, Itachi?" Kakashi demanded as he pulled the boy's face up to give it a good punch. "Why did you do this? You killed your entire family! The family of my best friend!"

"Sasuke..." Itachi said between punches. "Still lives..."

"You think that makes it better? He's going to live his entire life without a family. I know how it feels to lose everything like that," Kakashi growled. "It's cruel!"

Itachi nodded. "And yet you became a fine shinobi, as will Sasuke," he said. "But I... cannot let you kill me, yet. I made a promise."

The white haired ninja's eyes grew cold, murderous. "I'm afraid I don't much care about your promise. You're worse than trash. I'm here to take you out!" He raised a kunai high in the air, and Itachi tensed, ready try to break free of Kakashi's hold. Out of his periphery, however, he saw an orange light, and felt a warmth wash over him. His captor's weight lifted off of him.

"Are you alright, boy?"

Itachi rose to a sitting position and looked over at the source of the light. It was an older man with a long beard and ragged clothing. "Yes," he said. "I'm just fine." He looked at Kakashi. He was knocked out by a tree. Itachi got to his feet and said, "Thank you, sir."

"No need for formalities," the man said. "I am just an old man passing through. I thought you could use some help. A young boy like yourself needn't be getting pushed around by the likes of that bully."

"No, I'm afraid you're mistaken," Itachi said. "He... he was just following orders. You see, I'm a criminal, now."

"Oh, and what could you have done that would warrant field execution, exactly?" Iroh asked.

"I believe the correct term is 'familicide.'" Itachi said.

Iroh's brows creased as he looked the boy over, seeing his tear streaked face and dull eyes. "Come walk with me," the old man said. "I can see you're in a lot of pain. Tell me, why would you kill a member of your own family?"

The boy walked a short distance behind Iroh. "It wasn't just 'a' member," he admitted. "It was all of them."

"All?" Iroh asked. "Really?"

"No," Itachi said. "There was one... my little brother. I couldn't kill him. Even though I was ordered to."

"So," Iroh said. "You killed your family because you were ordered to and now you are being pursued by those whom ordered you to do this thing?"

"Yes. Because I did not kill my brother. It was a secret mission. Only the council of the Leaf Village and the Fire Shadow knew of it. They ordered me to do it because they wanted to prevent a coup, but since I did not kill my brother, since he saw me in the act of killing... I must become a criminal so that he does not bear resentment toward Konoha, himself."

Iroh glanced over his shoulder at the boy. "That sounds like quite a sacrifice to make."

"I would sacrifice anything," Itachi said. "For the good of my village. And for my brother."

"I've been traveling for awhile, now," Iroh said. "Trying to make sense out of life. I'm going toward the Western Airtemple. Would you like to join me?"

The young ninja didn't really know what else to do. He hadn't planned on this. "What choice do I have?"

Iroh laughed as they walked along. "Only the ones you make for yourself, my boy."

- - -

Itachi smiled. "It's ironic. Even after all this time, I'm still playing the part of double agent."

"You chose this path, Itachi," Iroh said. "But if you are having second thoughts... well, I would not want you to go through all this against your will."

"No," the Uchiha said. "My greatest wish in life would be for Sasuke to forgive his foolish older brother. But that is selfishness. I am here to be his obstacle."

- - -

Toph Beifong walked through her family's garden, feeling the lush grass between her toes and the roots of the creaking trees burrowing ever so slowly under her feet. Blind since birth, Toph had long ago discovered that earthbending could allow her to feel the earth's vibrations. She deeply enjoyed submitting to the sensations of the world, hearing the voice of the planet around her. It calmed her. And she needed calming after having to deal with her overbearing father once again.

Her father had found a bruise on her leg that she'd sustained from the last cage match. She had explained it away by telling him she had stumbled in the bathroom and hit her leg. Now he wanted to have a guard posted with her any time she needed to take a leak. Such indignity! She didn't know how much more of this coddling she could take. At least she had an outlet. It wouldn't be long that she could participate in Earth Rumble Six, where she could defend her title.

She felt her entourage coming before they ever saw her. "Hello," she said as she heard them call to her. "If Father sent you to check up on me, tell him I'm fine."

"It's not that, Miss Beifong," one of the guards said. "Your father has visitors and would like you to come meet them."

"Oh," Toph said flatly. "Well, I don't know... I am feeling a little faint..."

Within the Beifong manor, the master of the house seated his four guests. "Well, it's quite a treat to host such a prestigious son of the Uchiha family."

Sasuke smiled graciously. He was dressed in his finest robes with his family crest prominently displayed, as well as the three spinning seeds that defined the special mirror wheel eyes of the Uchiha clan. "I am honored to be the guest of the great Lao Beifong while I and my retainers rest from our journey."

Lao nodded. "I was surprised to find anyone of the Uchiha family still around, of course. I heard that there was an unfortunate incident involving some assassin, though details seem to be... quite sparse, I'm afraid."

"My older brother," Sasuke's eyes became cold. "Yes. There was an incident. I am the last of my clan, unfortunately."

"Oh, how awful," the Beifong matriarch crooned.

"I am sorry for your loss," Lao said. "I hope your stay here is replenishing..."

Toph entered the room hesitantly, obviously reluctant to meet her family's guests.

"Ahh, here is my daughter, Toph. Come, Toph, I would like to introduce you to our guests. This is Sasuke, from the Uchiha family of the Fire Nation."

"Excuse me, Father," Toph said. "But aren't we... at war with the Fire Nation?"

"Toph!"

"No, she's right," Sasuke said. "But war... well, that's a military matter, you know. We can't let some petty military conflict degrade basic human hospitality."

"Yeah, sure," Toph said, unconvinced. She strode across the floor and sat, ignoring the guards who hovered over her like flies about a fresh corpse.

Sasuke eyed her with interest. Her moves were self assured, well balanced, and she seemed to have a keen awareness of her surroundings, in spite of being obviously impaired. Of course, that could be because she had lived here so long that her body had memorized the layout of the room, but somehow he saw something more profound than that.

The Uchiha and the Beifongs engaged in idle chat for awhile before the young man excused himself and his partners. They were tired, he explained, and would need rest. The Beifong patriarch had a servant show the four to their guest quarters. When they were alone, Suigetsu spoke up.

"Sasuke, are you sure the Avatar is coming this way?"

"It's not me who is sure," Sasuke replied. He gestured at the tallest member of their group. "It's Juugo who discovered them and where they were going."

"Oh, yeah," Ty Lee exclaimed, clapping her hands. "From that cute little flying squirrel in the town with the uncooked Avatar cookies!"

"Worst town I've ever been to," Suigetsu grumbled.

"Your brother," Juugo said softly. "He... wasn't with them."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "I know. But he is connected with the Avatar. If I have that kid, I'll be that much closer to Itachi."

"So you're after the Avatar, huh?"

The four looked to the window to see Toph sitting idly on the sill. "So. You were eavesdropping."

"Well, I don't have much better to do," the girl said, waving her hands in front of her face. "I also heard Dad talking about what happened to your family. Let me guess... it has something to do with this 'Itachi' guy you're trying to find?"

"That's right," Sasuke said, watching as the girl slid out of the window and onto the floor. She walked toward them and he took his sword and sheath from his belt and laying it in her path, propped on the bed. "My brother killed them. I saw the whole thing. Funny thing is he was always the most praised and the most talented. I guess sometimes people don't appreciate attention."

Toph picked up the sword and handed it back to the Uchiha as she approached. "Yeah, well sometimes maybe too much attention just ends up making you feel... like... isolated and cut off from everything. You can't be normal. It's like you're... some kind of freak. You know, I don't think I've ever even seen anyone under forty, before."

The Uchiha took his sword and replaced it. "I understand how you feel. So... you're not really as blind as you lead your parents to believe, are you?"

"How'd you figure that one out, genius?" Toph snorted. "Yeah, I can feel the vibrations of objects on the ground with earthbending. The earth is always moving, even just a little, so I can almost always tell where things are. Of course, this tile makes it a bit hard," she said, stomping on the floor, "But it's good enough that I could tell you were trying to trip me up."

"Why doesn't your father know?" Ty Lee asked. "I'm sure he would stop treating you so special if he knew you weren't going to bump into things and hurt yourself."

Toph snorted. "That wouldn't work. I tried telling him before, but he just laughed it off. Of course, that was before I..." she trailed off. "Eh, never mind. It's not important." She walked toward the door. "See you later, nice talkin' with you."

"Wait, Toph," Sasuke interjected.

The girl paused.

The Uchiha's sharingan was active now, though the Beifong girl would never know it, and his eyes took in every movement and the faint aura of energy flowing through her chakras and around her body. "You can use your earthbending for more than just sensing what's around you. You can fight. I can tell."

"Maybe," Toph said, a bit unnerved that this complete stranger was making such accurate assumptions about her when her own parents and earthbending teacher had never figured it out.

"Maybe you would like to leave this life of fragile things," Sasuke said, his voice seductively sweet. "You could be of much use to us. You could help us capture the Avatar. Wouldn't that be a great adventure?"

Toph stood unresponsive for several moments. Then, she shrugged. "Help capture the Avatar? You must be crazy." She left the room, leaving the Uchiha alone with his three gaping partners.

"You actually want to recruit the little girl?" Suigetsu asked incredulously. "You already have plenty to get things done, don't you? Plus, she's a complete stranger. You don't know what she can do."

"I'll find out," Sasuke said. "But, for now, there's nothing wrong with baiting a potential ally. Besides, the Avatar will be looking for an earthbending teacher, right? If he comes here... if he finds her..." he smirked. Everything was coming together, almost as if fate had ordained it.

- - -

Pian Dao looked up from his calligraphy upon hearing a loud knock at his door. He sighed. He truly hoped it wasn't another hopeless amateur swordsman looking for some shortcut training. He really despised these hotshots. He heard his butler, who was one of his few successful students, answer the door. He was surprised at how quickly it seemed the visitors were rushed in. Perhaps it was one of those pushy types. That was never a good sign.

He heard the door to his chamber open and he prepared himself to address the prospective student, but then he stopped. These were no amateurs entering the room. He turned and saw them. "Grand Master!" he gasped, a grin spreading across his face. He kowtowed to the prestigious leader of the Order of the White Lotus. When he arose, he looked to the younger visitor. "And Itachi. Yes, I remember you. I must say, we will have to have another spar sometime."

"That would be enjoyable," Itachi agreed. "But I'm afraid I can't stay long. I was just here to see Iroh from his imprisonment into your trustworthy hands."

"Of course," Pian Dao accepted. "I'm surprised. They actually managed to capture you?"

"Orochimaru was involved," Iroh stated. "And Itachi's younger brother."

Pian Dao shivered. "Orochimaru. Yes. I remember him well. He was quite the swordsman, as well, though I have to say his technique was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. I don't think anyone had ever even thought of barfing up their swords as a technique, of course." He shook his head. "Everything about that man gave me the creeps. I'm glad he was on our side at the time."

Itachi smiled. "He is no difficult opponent if you know his weakness."

"Overconfidence," Pian Dao agreed. "And I'm sure you gave him a good deflating when you broke the Grand Master out, right?"

"Of course!" Iroh joined in. "Wrapped him up in his own snakes."

The three men laughed at the expense of the snake ninja. However, they quickly sobered and Itachi was forced to give his farewell. "I can't stay any longer. Kisame will come looking for me if I'm not back soon. Take care of this body while I'm gone," he requested. "I may need it sometime in the future." He made a variety of handseals and his body seemed to melt, but then it reformed like clay into the shape of a strange man dressed in Itachi's clothes. He fell to the floor, lifeless."

Pian Dao looked vaguely unnerved. "Pain's abilities are frightening. To think he can link a person's mind to corpses in such a way... I wonder what other unnatural techniques he possesses."

"Nothing we can't overcome," Iroh responded. "Or use to our advantage, as in this case."

- - -

Azula finished meticulously applying her make up and exited her tent. She hadn't had much sleep last night, again, but she had been careful to hide any signs of fatigue, and she barked at her tracker Karin, "Okay, what direction are we heading, now?"

Karin focused, tracking the unique energy signature of the exiled prince of the Fire Nation. "He's heading south of here right now."

"Good, let's get going," she said.


	7. Who Sees

**Elements of War**

**Chapter 06  
Who Sees  
**

Naruto and Jiraiya sat leisurely at their table in the local tavern. The old man sipped on a cup of wine while Naruto guzzled a glass of milk. They were waiting for the boat to the Fire Nation to allow boarding. The blond ninja was quite excited about getting back to the Leaf Village. He would see all his friends again like Shikamaru, Kiba, and... Sakura. He blushed at the thought of her. He wondered how she had... developed.

"Naruto!" Jiraiya snapped. "Stop drooling on the table."

He apologized and moved his empty cup under his chin. Out of his periphery, the boy noticed a girl leaping over a table at them. Yet another of his adoring fangirls... or not. Blue flames washed across their table and the two shinobi leaped back. Naruto found himself suddenly pinned to a wall with knives. "Aw, man..."

Jiraiya summoned a large toad. "Alright, ladies, let's dance."

- - -

Toph landed softly on the other side of the Beifong complex wall. She was garbed in her green fighting clothes and hat. Tonight was the night of Earth Rumble Six. She began to make her way toward the stadium. As she ran stealthily through the backstreets, she noticed something strange. She stopped a block from the stadium and turned. "You can come out, now."

Sasuke seemed to melt out of the shadows. "So you can fight," he said. "I've heard of Earth Rumble. Quite a high level competition."

"Not really," Toph said. "They're strong, but they're mostly meat heads. No tact in their fighting." She began walking once more toward the stadium's back entrance. "So, you come to watch?"

"Not exactly," the young man said. "I'm here to participate."

"Really?" Toph said. "You do know you have to be able to earthbend, right?"

"Not a problem."

Within the stadium, the host was shouting to the crowd. "Welcome to Earth Rumble Six! I am your host, Xin Fu! The rules are simple, just knock the other guy out of the ring and you win." He earthbent himself into the announcer's box as the first two contestants walked onto the stage. "Round 1! The Boulder versus... The Big Bad Hippo!"

The Boulder, a hugely muscular man with a tattoo on his back faced off against The Hippo, a man just as tall and twice as wide. "Listen up, Hippo!" The Boulder's tone was gruff and strained. "You may be big, but you ain't bad!" He grinned. "The Boulder's gonna win this in a landslide!"

"Hippo mad!" The fat man raised his arms defiantly in the air. The Hippo caught a rock tossed at him by The Boulder and crushed it in his mouth. He then began to hop up and down, shaking the arena. The Boulder began to stumble as the ground wobbled underneath him.

"Unbelievable, Ladies and Gentlemen," Xin Fu shouted. "The Hippo is rocking the Boulder!"

The Boulder nearly fell from the arena, but he earthbent a sheet of rock from the side of the stage and tossed it at his opponent, who was prematurely celebrating his supposed victory. He was knocked out when the stone impacted with the back of his head.

"The Boulder wins!"

Backstage, Sasuke found the Fire Nation Man, an earthbender who had taken a villainous role. However, this joke of a fighter was just perfect for Sasuke. He tapped the man on the shoulder. "Excuse me..." As the man turned, he jammed his fist into the man's gut. He passed out and Sasuke took the Fire Nation flag from him.

"Next, The Boulder versus Fire Nation Man!" Xin Fu announced. Sasuke entered the stage, shirtless except for Fire Nation shoulder guards, though still wearing his Sound uniform's pants and belt. His face was obscured by a half mask and his hair was tied up in a Fire Nation style topknot. He carried the flag casually with the pole across his shoulders. "It looks as if Fire Nation Man... has been working out..." The crowd booed, one very loud spectator in the nosebleed section shouting at Sasuke to return to his country of origin.

Sasuke tossed the Fire Nation flag into the air and it arced through the air to land upright at The Boulder's feet. "Muscle-brained earthbender... I'll crush you into pebbles."

The Boulder was taken aback. Fire Nation Man had always been a way to poke fun at the Earth Kingdom's enemy. Since when did he have such cool lines? Not to mention his new slim physique. "Well, well, Fire Nation Man," he said, doing his best to mask his surprise with theatrical bravado. "You got some stones since last we met. But the Earth Kingdom always endures!" He stomped on the ground fiercely, dislodging a mass of hard earth. He launched the stone at the red-clad fighter, but Fire Nation Man slipped around the attack deftly.

Frustrated, The Boulder steeled himself for a real fight. It seemed as if Fire Nation Man was serious. He slid his feet around, moving in a circle around his opponent. Fire Nation Man mirrored his movements exactly. After a few moments, The Boulder struck, but his foe copied his movement exactly, and their stones collided. The Boulder fired his torpedoes in rapid succession, but each was perfectly countered by the slimmer man in Fire Nation colors.

It was time for a new approach, The Boulder decided. He leaped into the air, spinning about as he did. His feet came into contact with the ring, causing the earth to swirl beneath him. Sasuke leaped at that moment, and the drilling pillar that emerged from the ground served merely as the ramp to launch the young man into the air. His hands sped through a number of hand signs and he pursed his lip. A fire ball shot forth, rocketing into The Boulder and exploding. The Boulder was launched out of the ring.

The crowd was silent as Sasuke landed. Xin Fu was speechless in the announcer's box, as well. That firebending trick was amazing, he thought. He didn't know where Fire Nation Man had picked up something like that, nor even how he had pulled it off. There was no way an Earthbender could actually firebend, but that had looked just like the real thing! Finally, he snapped out of it. "F-F-Fire Nation Man wins!"

The crowd's reaction at this was mixed, some booing and taunting Fire Nation Man as a few applaud the impressive bout. After the Boulder, Sasuke's matches went quickly. He defeated a skilled tunneling Earthbender, a green-masked man, and a man with a painted face. In each round, Sasuke perfectly countered each earthbending technique before finishing his foe off with a fire ball. Finally, Xin Fu announced the final fight.

"Now the moment you've all been waiting for," Xin Fu said ominously. "Fire Nation Man versus your champion..." Sasuke saw Toph walk onto the stage with two tall, beautiful women as she held her championship belt up high. "The Blind Bandit!"

"I hope you're more of a match for me than your friends," Fire Nation Man scoffed.

"I don't think I'm a match for you," The Blind Bandit acquiesced. "More like a forest fire. I hope you can do more than copy moves."

"Let's find out," Sasuke said.

"Bring it on, Fire Fly," Toph laughed.

Sasuke and Toph stood facing each other for several moments before Sasuke decided to make the first move. He rocketed toward The Blind Bandit at blinding speed. Fortunately, Toph was already blind. She felt the myriad vibrations, impressed at the other's swiftness. She held her ground, waiting for her opponent to make the wrong move.

It happened. Sasuke paused a split second to circle around her, and she felt it, knew the direction of his push. She made her move, earthbending a pillar right under Fire Nation Man's foot. He was launched up, but recovered midair. When he landed again, Toph was ready. She earthbended another pillar, launching him once more, but Fire Nation Man was not taken off guard. He created his handsigns as he flew and shot a ball of fire toward her. Toph felt the rising heat and realized what was happening. She created a wall of rock that took the brunt of the blow, though it shattered, pelting her with debris.

Sasuke landed deftly on the ground, watching her intently with his sharingan. He saw her begin to move again after recovering from his attack. His eye reacted as it had with the others by sending the perceived movements and energy flow to his reflexes, causing him to move in a mirror image. His eyes would also manipulate his opponent's mind with a special kind of genjutsu unique to the Uchiha eye. It would allow him to "borrow" his foe's bending ability, channeling it through himself in the form of his opponent's own attack. It was the ultimate expression of letting one's opponent defeat him or herself. Toph struck at the same time that Fire Nation Man did.

The pillar jutted forth, slamming into Sasuke and caused him to rocket into the far wall. He had been unable to copy The Blind Bandit's earthbending. Sasuke laughed, realizing his mistake.

"Your winner and still champion," Xin Fu announced. "The Blind Bandit." The announcer leaped down into the ring holding a green pouch. "To make things a little more interesting," he said. "I'm offering up this sack of gold pieces to anyone who can defeat The Blind Bandit!" He waited for a moment and, seeing no takers, taunted, "What? No one dares to face her?"

"I will," a small voice said casually. Xin Fu, shocked at the sudden acceptance of his challenge, turned toward the speaker, a small boy in ratty clothes. He wasn't too impressed with the looks of this boy, but he knew better than to judge by appearances. He leaped out of the ring, allowing the match.

Sasuke watched from the sidelines, surprised that fate would bring the Avatar right to him so conveniently. He had sent his partners out tonight to keep watch for him, too.

"Do people really want to see two little girls fighting out here‌?" Toph taunted the boy.

"I don't really want to fight you. I want to talk to you," Aang replied.

"Boo!" said a familiar spectator. "No talking!"

Aang stepped forward, and Toph smiled as his foot hit the ground. She stomped her foot, causing a large rock to burst from the ground under Aang's foot. He was launched into the air, but the wind allowed him to drift gracefully about the ring. The Blind Bandit's face creased in frustration, not being able to feel the boy's vibrations. "Someone's a little light on their feet," she said, half taunting. "What's your fighting name? The Fancy Dancer?"

Aang shrugged as he landed softly on the ground. Another rock erupted from the earth, and he somersaulted through the air. "Where'd you go?" Toph growled.

"Please, wait," Aang requested of her as he landed behind The Blind Bandit.

"There you are!" Toph exclaimed, and she turned, raising a boulder from the ground and shooting it like a bullet toward the young airbender. Aang leaped and struck with a wall of wind, which not only deflected the rock, but launched The Blind Bandit out of the ring. The crowd cheered at a slightly confused Aang as Toph recovered and lurked away.

Aang called after her. "Please listen! I need an earthbending teacher, and I think it's supposed to be you."

"Whoever you are, just leave me alone!" Toph growled.

"Wait!"

Toph slammed the door on Aang's face and stomped forward angrily. She had been beaten! By a little kid! It didn't occur to her that she was, herself, classified as "a little kid," and had beaten quite a few grown men. She was just mad. Sasuke appeared beside her.

"Don't feel too bad. That was the Avatar."

Toph frowned. "That was him, huh? A little short to be the Avatar, isn't he?"

Sasuke smirked. "Well, from what I hear, he's been frozen for a hundred years or so. I'd say he looks pretty good for his age."

The Blind Bandit continued to scowl. She had never actually been beaten before. It made her feel unsure of herself. Like her father's beliefs about her were right. Sasuke saw her feelings reflected in her face. They were so like his own when he was her age. When he was trying so hard to prove himself when what he really should have been doing was working toward his goals without letting foolish things like pride cloud his judgment.

"What would you say if I told you I could give you the power to defeat even the Avatar," Sasuke asked.

"Ha," Toph scoffed. "You couldn't even beat me."

Sasuke smirked. "You've not heard of the special abilities of the Uchiha's sharingan eyes, have you?"

"Nope, couldn't care less," Toph said.

"The sharingan is what allows me to mirror the bending of other types of benders. My natural affinity is fire, but I could earth-, water-, and even airbend if confronted with someone who could do so as well," Sasuke revealed. "The way I do that has to do with the abilities of my eyes. Anyone who looks into them is caught in my power, and I can use their bending power as my own."

"But... I can't see," Toph realized.

"So you're unaffected by many of my sharingan's techniques. I'm forced to use my own techniques and abilities," Sasuke said. "At the same time... you would be unaffected by my brother's eyes. His genjutsu abilities are even more refined than my own."

Toph considered. "So you need me, huh?"

"I do. You should join me. You're looking for adventure, aren't you? Freedom?"

The young girl paused, her face somber. "Yeah... going wherever you want. No one telling you what to do, that's the life. It's just not my life."

"Perhaps you should think it over," Sasuke said.

"Yeah..." Toph said. "I think... I'm gonna go home, now."

"Of course."

- - -

Jiraiya and Naruto sped along the pier. Their ship was preparing to set sail, and they were ready to get home. First, however, they had to get these crazy girls off their tails. The dagger thrower and the violent redhead seemed pretty dangerous in their own right, but that girl tossing the blue flames around was really deadly.

Naruto ran up the side of the ship, dodging the flames and daggers as he did. The three ladies made their own ways up to the deck, and faced the two ninja amidst stunned onlookers. "This has gone on for long enough," Azula told them. "I know you're somehow connected with my brother. Every time we track him, there you two are..."

"Listen, girl," Naruto responded saucily. "I can't help coincidences. Why don't you leave us be?"

Azula scowled at the blond boy. "I'm afraid that's not an option. Now where is my brother?!" She shot the boy with blue flames and he exploded into a mass of smoke. Two clones of Naruto tried to jump Azula, but Mai dispatched them with her daggers. Another several clones then grabbed Mai from behind, and the girl froze as she felt myriad hands running themselves up and down her body. The girl took a dagger in palm and stabbed each Naruto successively in the face, her pale flesh crimson with a mixture of embarrassment and anger.

"Ha... shows you, pervert," Mai said.

The real Naruto emerged from behind a post, tossing a number of small shuriken.

Mai engaged Naruto with the throwing daggers she had used to stab the clones as Jiraiya ran interference with the other two women. Her deflections were perfect. Naruto grinned and a faint red aura seemed to emanate from his body. His hands blurred and suddenly there were more than fifty clones of Naruto standing on deck, surrounding the girls.

"Sure does," Naruto said, drawing another set of shuriken from his pouch. "But now you're out of knives."

"Don't be ridiculous," Mai said smugly. "I've got holsters strapped all over my body." She reached into her robe. She felt around. She frowned.

"You mean these?" Naruto asked, holding up a slew of knife containers. "I took them off you before, and used a substitution jutsu to replace myself with a clone before you tried to stab me. Let's see how good you are without your knives." He charged her, shuriken at the ready. He tossed them, and Mai slipped around the projectiles. She then grabbed Naruto's wrist as he punched at her, twisted his arm behind him and kicked him between the legs.

"Good enough," Mai said.

"Augh..." Naruto groaned. "That was so not fair."

Suddenly, a rope flew over Mai's head and she found herself being tugged backward. She hit the deck; her arms and legs tied together, and found a silhouette of a man hovering over her. The shadow leaned forward. "Sorry to do this to you, Mai."

The girl recognized that voice, though it sounded far more world-weary than she remembered it. "I have to say, Zuko, this isn't as fun as I'd imagined."

Zuko blushed slightly, but didn't respond. He got up and turned to Naruto who had semi-recovered from the blow to his vitals. "Consider this payback. I'm the one they want."

The blond ninja looked with confusion at the young man. "Umm... what? So you're that crazy chick's brother?"

"That's right," he said. "I'll fight them off. You go back home."

Further off, Jiraiya was warding off the attacks of Azula and Karin. He seemed to be doing quite well. He summoned a toad, who really licked Karin. Jiraiya managed to deflect Azula's fire blasts, though his sleeves were getting quite singed.

"Wait, Li," Naruto said. "You don't have to do this. You can help us out. We're stronger together than alone."

"I need to do this. I need to so I know I can beat that guy," Zuko growled.

"What guy?" Naruto asked.

Zuko frowned. "You know him," he said. "Uchiha. Sasuke Uchiha."

"Sasuke..." Naruto repeated. "And... your sister... she knows him, too."

Zuko turned. "What exactly are you getting at?"

- - -

"I'm telling you, The Boulder was standing right there. I saw the kid strike, but there was no earthbending." Xin Fu's expression became darker as he listened to his fighter speak. "Nothing made contact. The Blind Bandit just fell out of the ring. She must have took a dive and split the money with the kid."

Xin Fu erupted in rage, pounding his fist into the tunnel wall. Rocks dislodged from the ceiling, one falling onto his foot. He screamed for a moment before sobering, an angry expression on his face. "Nobody cheats Xin Fu," he declared.

Meanwhile, in the Beifong Estate, Toph slept soundly after her invigorating workout. Sasuke watched her as she slept, crouched in the shadows. Should he do this, he wondered. Should he corrupt her for his own goals? Was he really willing to go this far? He remembered his brother's eyes that night. He remembered his words. He remembered when he met the Sound Four and realized that he had to do whatever it took to bring that monster down.

Sasuke leaned over Toph's sleeping form. His hands formed the signs that caused his teeth to grow long and sharp. Then the venom pouches that produced the special chemical that coursed through Juugo and his veins in concentrated form grew in, leaking the toxin out through his fangs. His hands rested on either side of the sleeping girl's head as his mouth approached her neck. His maw opened, dripping his fluid onto Toph's pillow. He never believed he would actually use this technique when Orochimaru showed him. He never thought he would go this far just for an added edge.

The door creaked open and Toph's father peaked in. He looked about the room, and then walked quietly inside. He gazed lovingly at his daughter. She looked so fragile, so small. Like a porcelain egg, something valuable to be protected at all costs. He leaned over her and kissed her gently on the forehead, then exited the room.

- - -

A mass of Zukos attacked Azula en masse. "We won't give up without a fight!" they declared.

_She unsheathed the dagger and ran her eyes up and down the cold steel._ Never Give Up Without A Fight_. It was Zuko's dagger, she realized._

Azula sneered. That Naruto kid was protecting her foolish older brother by creating clones disguised as him to allow him to escape. She wouldn't allow it. She unleashed an onslaught of flame that plowed through the clones like butter. She spotted the undisguised Naruto and carved a path toward him. If she could take out the original, the other clones would disperse and the real Zuko would be revealed. She was glad the old man seemed to have retreated. He had been very difficult to fight. These clones, on the other hand, were easy to dispatch. She fired at Naruto, though the clone Zukos moved to protect him. That was predictable.

She leaped above the masses and landed near Naruto. She struck hard and fast and the blond ninja retaliated in kind. He was pretty good, she admitted. His fists hammered toward her, and she was hard pressed to avoid them. However, she was smarter than this guy. She caught his arm in a lock and struck him hard in his pressure points. She kept striking until he crumpled to his knees. She saw the Zuko clones dissipate in her periphery, and Naruto collapsed, unconscious.

"Zuko..." Azula said menacingly as she turned to the last remaining exiled prince on the ship. "You don't have a chance. You know that." She approached her brother as the burning mast fell to the deck behind her. "Give up. Make this easy on yourself. You've fought admirably, but now it's time to give into your destiny."

Zuko scowled at her. She could see the indignity in his eyes. His pride had been shattered during his brief run, she could tell. She would see him break before her._ Zuko was the only one who was kind to her, who showed her empathy. Soon she felt that she couldn't live without her dear older brother. Even though she hated him for all he had, now, all that could have been hers; she loved him more than anything._ Azula paused a meter from her brother and took a deep breath. "Well?"

Zuko's face softened. "I... you're right. There's no way I can beat you. Take me. Just leave Naruto and Jiraiya alone."

Azula frowned. That was almost too easy. Then she smirked smugly. That was it. He wanted to be taken. He was going to try to take down Sasuke when they met. After all, he still thought that their uncle had been killed by the shinobi. She took out a pair of metal cuffs and approached her brother.

- - -

Lao and Yu, a local earthbending master, sipped tea together, enjoying the midday sun. They sat together with Lao's wife and daughter. "I'm pleased to hear that Toph'sprivate lessons are going well, but I want to be sure that she's not trying anything too dangerous."

"Absolutely not," Master Yu assured him. "I'm keeping her at the beginner's level. Basic forms and breathing exercises only."

"Very good." A servant clad in gray entered the room at that point and informed his master that he had a visitor. Lao responded angrily, "Who thinks they are so important they can just come to my home unannounced‌?"

"Uh, the Avatar, sir."

Lao sobered. The Avatar was even more prestigious a guest than a member of the Uchiha family. Toph was less pleased. It was that kid who had beaten her in the Earth Rumble Tournament! He had tracked her down this morning, as well, asking to be her student. As if that would ever happen! She had thought he would take the hint when she called the guards on him, but it seemed he was persistent.

It didn't take long for Lao to prepare a suitable early dinner for his new guests. However, he was certainly unprepared for the tension his mix of guests would cause. After Aang, Katara, and Sokka sat across from Mrs. Beifong, Toph, and Yu, they were shocked and dismayed to see four familiar faces enter the room. Aang rose quickly, prepared for an attack when he saw Sasuke, but Lao and the others rose as well.

"Ah, Sasuke," Lao greeted. "It's so good of you to join us. Avatar Aang, this is Sasuke of the Uchiha clan and his retainers."

"Suigetsu, Ty Lee, and Juugo," Sasuke proffered. "However, the Avatar and I have met before, haven't we, Aang?" He sat down beside Yu and Juugo took a seat beside him as Ty Lee sat beside Sokka and Suigetsu sat across from Juugo. Sasuke looked with a mildly amused look on his face. "You look tense, Aang. Even the Avatar shouldn't always be on his guard. It's not healthy."

Aang remained distinctly uncomfortable. Sokka completely ignored the presence of their enemies and began to shovel food into his mouth. A servant placed a bowl of food in front of Toph, steam pouring from it. Lao saw this and ordered the man, "Blow on it. It's too hot for her."

"Allow me," Aang spoke up, eying Sasuke smugly. He created a small whirlwind which swirled across the table and petered out over Toph's dish, cooling it.

"Oh my!" Yu commented.

Lao's wife smiled and said airily, "Avatar Aang, it's an honor to have you visit us."

"In your opinion," Lao asked, "How much longer do you think the war will last?"‌

Aang glanced defiantly at Sasuke. "I'd like to defeat the Fire Lord by the end of summer," and he then glance suggestively at Toph. "But I can't do that without finding an earthbending teacher first."

"Well," Lao responded, gesturing to Yu, who was dabbing his mouth daintily with a napkin. "Master Yu is the finest teacher in the land. He's been teaching Toph since she was little."

"Then she must be a great earthbender," Aang said, excitedly. "Probably good enough to teach someone else."

Toph's foot stomped on the ground, and a wave of earth traveled toward Aang's. The airbender yelped in pain as a rock jutted up into his foot. He shot an angry glance at Toph, who simply continued eating her meal with the utmost of nonchalance.

"Toph is still learning the basics," Yu told the Avatar.

"Yes," Lao said, "And sadly, because of her blindness, I don't think she will ever become a true master."

"It is a sad thing," Sasuke agreed. "Those who are born special, like your daughter, must be lonely. I can't imagine the isolation one must feel, being so different from everyone around you that no one can understand you. What you can perceive. What you can do. Not only that," he went on. "But knowing the fear you inspire in others..."

"You sound like you're talking from personal experience," Aang said.

Sasuke smiled at Aang. "Perhaps. Tell me, Avatar... what have you heard from my brother?"

"Nothing you need to know," Aang said. "He left awhile ago."

"Do you know why he's considered an S-class criminal by the village hidden in the leaves?" Sasuke asked.

"I..." Aang began.

"He's a murderer, you know," Sasuke said. "He's killed many people, and he won't hesitate to kill you and your friends, too."

Aang exchanged disturbed looks with his friends. Lao began to feel distinctly uncomfortable. His wife wiped herself off and smiled pleasantly. "Well, shall we move to the living room for dessert, then?"

That evening, Sasuke and Toph walked together across a bridge as the Avatar and his friends were preoccupied with their guest quarters. "Even though I was born blind," Toph said to her companion. "I've never had a problem seeing." She jumped off the bridge to the ground. "With my earthbending, I can see where anything is: you, that tree, those ants..."

"It's quite a talent," Sasuke admitted. "But your parents don't understand, do they? They treat you like you're a weakling... like you'll break in the slightest breeze."

Toph snorted. "Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. That's why I became The Blind Bandit. I just... needed to feel like I was more than some fragile doll."

Sasuke grasped her shoulder. "You're not weak. You are perhaps the strongest earthbender I have ever seen. And you can be stronger. But you can't do that while your parents are actively stifling your growth."

Toph's face was conflicted. "They're my parents..."

"They can get along just fine without you, but you... you're not happy here. You can come with us and find a life worth living," Sasuke insisted. "Don't let your familial bonds stop you from achieving your full potential."

Toph's face looked wistful.

"Toph!" Aang's voice echoed over the bridge. He ran up to the blind girl. "Wait a minute. I don't know what he's trying to tell you, but believe me, you'd be better off coming with us. Be my teacher, Toph. You can help me end this war!"

Toph considered Aang's words, weighing them against Sasuke's. They both wanted her for their own benefit, she knew. Both would offer freedom and excitement in return. But what... she felt something. There was someone earthbending underground, heading straight for them. "We're being ambushed," she realized. She grabbed Aang and pulled him away as Sasuke followed close behind. The tunneling man passed them and burst from the ground. It was Gopher Man, Toph realized. She didn't know what he was doing here, but she would finish this quickly. She let go of Aang and assumed a ready stance.

Two metal cages fell upon Aang and Toph. Sasuke leaped out of the way as the two younger fighters were trapped. The other wrestlers from Earth Rumble descended, The Hippo, in particular, landing atop the two cages and stomping on them. Xin Fu entered. "These two kids owe me some money," he said menacingly to Sasuke.

The young shinobi eyed the wrestlers. "I see," said calmly. "I'm afraid I can't let you do this." He looked to The Boulder, who looked bristled for attack. Sasuke's sharingan were activated, and he bore into the man. The Boulder attacked, but Sasuke's eyes manipulated the man's chakra energy to the extent that his attack was deflected into Gopher Man, whose body flew through the air and hit the wall with a loud smack.

"What? The Boulder didn't..." The Boulder began, but he was cut off as Sasuke dashed through his defenses and struck him with quick intensity. Upon disengaging from The Boulder, Sasuke quickly dodged the attacks of several other opponents as electricity charged in the palm of his hand. He raced toward Aang's cage and plowed his hand through it, cutting through the metal. Aang back up against the opposite wall, and the power that coursed through the highly conductive metal ran through him as well, jolting him into unconsciousness.

Xin Fu and The Hippo were already lifting Toph's cage out, though. With his free hand, Sasuke made several rapid signs, and his tongue shot out of his mouth, transforming into a dark green snake. The snake entered Toph's cell through the barred window and with another few handsigns, Sasuke's tongue-snake bit into Toph's flesh. She gasped, not knowing where the sudden pain had come from. It only became stronger as she felt something swelling inside the bite wound. It swelled until it became unbearable, and the sounds of the night faded into silence.

Sasuke retracted his tongue as several guards raced toward his location, followed closely by Toph's parents and the other guests of the household. As he disappeared into the night, Xin Fu tossed a sword to the ground with a ransom note attached.

As Sokka made it on the scene, he gasped. "I can't believe it!" He dropped to his knees and began to reverently touch the unconscious form of The Boulder. "I'm actually touching the Boulder!"

Sasuke unrolled the scroll. "It seems Xin Fu wants to take your daughter hostage in the hopes of a cash payoff," he said. "They want 500 gold pieces delivered to the arena."

"500!" Lao gasped. He frowned. "I would do anything to keep my daughter safe."

The young man smiled. "I have a feeling she will be just fine." He turned to the lacerated cage and the smoking young airbender within. "You might want to take care of Aang, however. He seems to have taken a bit of collateral damage."

- - -

"Hippo not sure Blind Bandit faking," The Hippo said to Xin Fu as he peered inside Toph's metal cage. Inside, she was unconscious and shivering. She looked deathly ill. "It been more than hour..."

"She's fine," Xin Fu said. Even if she weren't, it wasn't his fault. He had seen that kid do something. He wasn't sure what, but it seemed like he had extended his tongue and stuck it inside the girl's cage. He had heard tales of shinobi having abilities beyond that of any bender. Magic power. He didn't really believe it, but one could argue that some kind of hex had been placed on her, though why he would bother hexing a girl being kidnapped was beyond him.

"Toph!" a cry echoed through the arena. Her father had arrived. He had brought friends, too. Master Yu was with him, as well as the Avatar and his friends. The Uchiha boy had also come with his retainers. Behind them, The Boulder and his other fighters who had been incapacitated by the shinobi were being dragged along in shackles.

"Xin Fu," Sasuke said. "We have your fighters, here. I'd suggest you trade Toph for them."

The older man smirked. "No deal. One's life is forfeit once one decides to take up the life of a martial artist. They all know that."

"The Boulder would like to say something..."

"Quiet," Xin Fu and Sasuke barked.

"Fine," Lao said, breaking down quickly. "We have your money!" He nudged Sokka, who grudgingly took the green pouch of gold out.

"Wait!" Sasuke said. "There's no need for this."

"No need?" Lao gasped. "My daughter is in danger! She could be hurt, or worse!"

Sasuke eyed the metal cage, hanging from the ceiling. "No..." his sharingan saw the dark aura surrounding it. It was getting stronger. "She won't be hurt, I promise. Just give it a moment..."

Inside the cage, Toph's eyes flew open. The pain she had felt radiating from her collarbone had turned sweet. It was as if waves of ecstasy were roiling from that spot, making her feel suddenly energized and alert. Her whole body was tingling. She stood slowly, feeling the subtle vibrations of the earth beneath her feet. She heard her father's voice, arguing with someone. "Dad?" she said.

"Toph!" Lao cried. "Don't worry, baby! We're going to get you out."

Xin Fu turned to the cage. He was glad the girl had finally awoken. He was beginning fear she was really going to die in there. He doubted he would get to keep his money if something like that were to happen. Not with the Beifong family out for revenge. "If you want her out, then you'd better give me that money, now."

Toph placed her hand on the inside of the cage. It felt cold and smooth, but she could feel the earthiness clearly. She had never encountered a stone that felt quite like this. Oh well, she thought. If it was rock, she could bend it. "Don't worry, Dad. I'll get myself out. Xin Fu's an idiot if he thinks a stone prison can keep me in."

"Stone?" Lao asked incredulously. "But that's..."

Toph struck the door with an open palm, denting it. She was a bit confused at that. She had never heard of a stone quite this pliant before. It was no matter, though. She could feel the earth clearly in the door, now. The next strike blew it off its hinges and into the arena's stands. She jumped out and landed on the stage, and it buckled under her. She felt so energized. She felt so powerful. She wanted to fight.

Lao took a step back as he saw his daughter rising to a standing position. She looked feral. He had never seen such a look on her before. Not only that, but there seemed to be dark lines crisscrossing her body in some kind of abstract pattern. "What have you done to my daughter?" he asked.

"I haven't done anything!" Xin Fu shouted, unnerved by this girl who had been able to—somehow—bend metal. "It... it must have been that ninja!" he said. "He's turned her into a monster."

Lao looked over at Sasuke, only to see the ninja freeing their own captives. "What... what is he talking about? And what are you doing?"

"Go on," Sasuke told the benders. "Are you going to let your boss get beat by a little girl? She's waiting for you."

Toph laughed. She began to walk toward Xin Fu, her movements stilted, as if in a trance. Her sightless eyes bore through him as she came, and he gulped in fear. "I beat you all before," she said menacingly. "And I'll do it again."

"The Boulder takes issue with that comment!" The Boulder declared. He dashed at her, leaping for the stage. Suddenly, a stalagmite burst up from the ground and caught him midleap in his pelvis. The Boulder groaned pitifully, and hit the ground, unconscious. The other fighters surged forward, confident in their ability to overwhelm Toph by numbers. However, Toph's attacks were brutal. She crushed Gopher Man's legs as he tried to emerge from the ground, and she broke The Hippo's ribs. Before even a minute had passed, Toph had defeated all her opponents with ruthless efficiency.

Xin Fu stepped back, sweat pouring down his face. "Y-you don't think you can beat me that easily do you? I trained these men!" He took a fighting stance.

"No... please!" Toph's father shouted. "My daughter... she's blind, she'll get hurt!"

"I think you should be more worried for Xin Fu," Katara retorted.

Toph was amazed at how heightened her senses were. She could feel Xin Fu's every movement even more acutely and she could feel sand bouncing across the floor, but, not only that, but she could hear the shuffling of clothing, smell the musky scent of the fighters, and feel the most fractional temperature change and wind shift on her skin. She had never seen so clearly. As Xin Fu began making his move, she struck, taking him off balance. She pushed her advantage quickly, embattling him from all sides with pillars of rock. She could literally feel her strikes hitting Xin Fu, she could feel the breaking of his capillaries and the straining of his bones. Her excitement grew as she heard his grunts of pain. She felt the heat from her collarbone radiating throughout her body, egging her on.

Xin Fu was more skilled than Toph gave him credit for, however. He managed to roll out of her punishing barrage and launched a stone at her head. However, Toph used her earthbending to skate along the ground, her speed breathtaking. She leaped at Xin Fu, drilling her fist into the man's face, relishing the feeling of twisting flesh. She then earthbent a pillar diagonally out of the ground as she fell back, ramming it into Xin Fu's back, pushing him back toward Toph. She then summoned another pillar to slam into his front, pinning him on his feet. She then lobbed projectiles at Xin Fu's head and chest, beating him until blood poured from his body and his skin was blackened. Finally, the pillar propping him from the back cracked and buckled, allowing the man to finally collapse to the ground.

Toph's breathing was heavy. Her mark had driven her to a fever pitch of bloodlust. She wanted to break Xin Fu like he had never been before and never would be again. She felt the earth of the ceiling directly above Xin's heart. She pulled a sharp stalactite from the ceiling and let it fall. As it fell through the air,she could hear it whistling ever closer to its destination, and her mark pushed her emotions to a climax.

"No!" Aang cried. He had been too stunned by the ferocity of Toph's attack to react, but the realization that she was about to kill a man spurred him into action. He sprung to the arena stage and a bullet of air diverted the stalactite from its target. It shattered beside Xin Fu, and the failed kidnapper fell into unconsciousness.

"Don't interfere, 'Twinkle Toes!'" Toph growled.

"Toph, there's something wrong with you!" Aang pleaded. "You're not acting like yourself. Sasuke's done something to you!"

"Is that right?" Toph asked. "If that's the case... I like it!" She attacked Aang, but the airbender flew out of the way of the projectiles. Toph felt the air pressure change on her skin as Aang floated above the ground. What her earthbending sense could no longer feel, her other senses now could. She took him out of the air with a powerful strike that sent him colliding with the wall. She kept striking, advancing with sweeping, low stances as she went. Aang, however, ran along the wall, using airbending to quicken his pace. Her stones, however, were frighteningly close to the mark.

Katara stepped in and pulled the water from her hide pouch, whipping at Toph. The blind girl raised a defensive wall, distracting her long enough for Aang to approach and fire a jet stream at the girl. She earth-skated out of its path a quickly as Aang had run, and she launched her own attacks at both benders as she went. Aang evaded the attacks while Katara deflected them with her water whip, but the water tribe girl was being pushed back, as the force of the earth strikes were becoming too much for her. Toph sensed this and focused her attacks on the girl, breaking her guard. Aang reacted quickly, pushing all the power he could into a blast of air that deflected the stone from Katara. However, Toph had anticipated this, and she summoned a pillar of stone while he was in midstrike, hammering him into the air. Katara retaliated swiftly, merging the flowing waters into a single fang of roiling liquid. Toph blocked the attack, though her defensive wall was cracked by the force. Aang, who had had time to recover, now descended upon the blind girl, a howling wind at his fingertips. Toph smirked. She was going to enjoy breaking this kid.

"No, stop it!"

Aang pulled back, and Toph turned toward the familiar voice. It was her father, Lao Beifong. He had run into the middle of the battlefield. Toph's bloodlust began to abate slightly, though the tension within her still ran high.

"Please, Avatar!" Lao said. "Stop attacking my daughter. I can see she's out of control, but she's just a blind little girl. I've been too lenient with her, I see that now. I will make sure that she doesn't get into this kind of trouble again!"

Toph felt a resurgence of anger. That was all her father ever thought of her. Just a blind little girl. Helpless and useless, something to be watched over with a never-straying eye. She didn't want that. She wanted to be free and to do what she wanted. Her father wouldn't allow that. And she could see that the Avatar was just going to get in her way, too. "No, Father!" Toph said. "This is who I am! I like to fight, and I want to be free. You've kept me secret from the whole world, and I'm through with it." She lifted a stone from the ground and aimed it at her father. "Just like I'm through with _you_!"

A hand touched Toph's shoulder and she paused. "Toph," the deep voice said. "Calm down. You've made your point." The blind girl dropped her rock, and the abstract design covering her body began to recede. "If you come with me, I can train you to better use your power. I can show you a path to true greatness. And in return, all I ask is that you help me to defeat one of the most powerful shinobi on this planet."

Toph's breathing returned to normal as the markings finally receded to a single mark on her collarbone consisting of three lines radiating outward, curving counterclockwise. "That... sounds pretty sweet." She turned from her former opponents and began to walk away with Sasuke.

"Wait!" Aang shouted. "You can't leave us! You have to teach me earthbending." More quietly, but firmly, he said, "I can feel it!"

Toph responded as she continued walking. "Maybe. But not today."


	8. No Surrender

**Elements of War**

**Chapter 07  
No Surrender  
**

Azula fingered the dagger she had removed from Zuko's ratty robes. She unsheathed it and read the inscription: _Never Give Up Without A Fight._

_Her hands relaxed on the blade. Why couldn't she do it? She willed her hands to press forward. To slip the metal into her jugular. But it wouldn't go. Why? She tossed the damnable blade aside. "No!" she screamed as she felt the pain in her chest, so much greater than that external pain, clamp down and drag her into the abyss. She screamed again, like a wounded animal waiting to die._

Azula covered her mouth, willing herself not to make a sound. Her forehead was glistening with sweat from the brief flashback. They were getting worse. They were starting to affect her performance. But she shook it off and did her best to remain focused. She knew that Zuko would never be without this dagger. He loved it. So this was proof that this was indeed the real Zuko. She had been a bit suspicious at first. After all, he had been fighting on the side of shinobi, and she knew first hand how strong their illusions were. In fact, she still had some suspicions. "I always did like this knife, Zuzu," she said.

"Yeah..." Zuko replied from his prone position. He was tied to the back of an ostrich-horse, and looked quite uncomfortable.

"Do you remember when you got it?" she asked. "That was an interesting day, wasn't it?"

"Yeah... Uncle gave it to me," Zuko replied.

Mai piped in. "I doubt Zuko would forget anything about that day. After all his grandfather died and his mother disappeared that night." Then she looked up at Zuko and winked. "Oh, yeah, and you tackled me into the water fountain." She looked up and winked at him. "At least you made up for it by taking me on a date."

Zuko blushed. Mai grinned slyly. Azula rolled eyes. "If Mr. Sasuke pushed me into a fountain, I'd just kick his ass," Karin retorted, blushing.

"So, where is 'Mr. Sasuke?" Zuko asked, suddenly seeming more focused.

"Feh," Karin scoffed. "You must think I'm stupid. I'm not giving that kind of information to the enemy."

"He's hardly the enemy," Mai retorted. "Just because his uncle and he fought Admiral Zhao at the North Pole doesn't make Zuko a traitor. First off, I'd just like to note that Zhao was a real jerk. He said some very unflattering things to me while I was visiting Zuko in the hospital after... the incident." She ruffled Zuko's buzz cut. "You were just making him pay for being an ass-monkey, weren't you?"

Azula remembered her first time trying to ride an ass-monkey. Useful for riding through treetops in heavily forested regions, they were nonetheless very temperamental and had a tendency for making rude gestures, not to mention tossing feces about in a festive manner. A very apt comparison to the late admiral, she decided.

The trio and their prisoner made their way into an Earth Kingdom village. Azula and her partners had opted to dress in Earth Kingdom colors so as not to impede their progress, so they would not have any problems with the villagers. They had been fortunate enough to run into an envoy with three women in their sizes, and had borrowed their wardrobe accordingly. As they walked through the village, they saw several swaggering Earth Kingdom soldiers. A ragged bunch of dregs by Azula's reckoning. She stopped briefly at a food stand. She was getting a bit hungry and their food stores were running low. Thankfully, she had plenty of money. Azula tossed a pouch of gold on the counter and said, "I need a bag of feed, some bread, cheese, jam, and some water."

"Of course, ma'am," the vendor said, excited at the sight of so much currency. He turned to gather the supplies from his storeroom. Out of the corner of her eye, Azula noted a group of children, one with eggs in his hands. He handed one of his eggs to a friend, who tossed it at a group of gambling soldiers. It hit and the children ran off before the soldier could turn to catch them.

Gow, the leader of the group of soldiers, turned to see who would dare to hit him with an egg. He saw no one on the street except a group of three girls and a man tied to an ostrich horse. His brow furrowed and he shouted at the girls. "Hey! You little girls throwing eggs at us?"

Azula turned and smirked. "Who, us? Now why would we want to do something like that to big, strong men like yourselves?"

Gow was slightly befuddled. "Err... well, did you see who threw it?"

"It was my ostrich horse," the fire princess responded. "You see, sometimes it gets a little blockage and then the pressure just builds up until... well, let's just say it's broken quite a few records for distance laying."

"Do you think we're stupid, lady?" one of the soldiers responded angrily. Gow raised a hand to stop him from acting.

"So, you're gonna try to play us for fools, huh girl?" he eyed the jars of preserves the merchant was laying on the table. He reached for one. "Well, thanks for the donation, anyway. The army thanks y—" Gow gasped as Karin grabbed his wrist and twisted it behind him, landing him forcefully on the ground. The other soldiers advanced, but a few well thrown daggers from Mai nicking the left cheek of each soldier stopped them in their tracks.

"I'm afraid this is for my own task force. Foot soldiers like you would be better off scavenging for food like the beasts you are," Azula suggested.

The soldiers backed off, and Karin released Gow, who joined his men. "You'd better leave town, strangers," he growled as he retreated. "Penalty for staying is much steeper than you can afford. Trust me!"

And with that they were gone. Azula turned back to the merchant. She took a water skin and gulped some of the cool liquid down, and then gestured for her comrades to start packing the supplies on the ostrich-horse. "Those soldiers are supposed to protect us from the Fire Nation, but they're just a bunch of thugs," he explained. "I'm glad that someone was able to put them in their place."

The princess nodded, appreciatively. That was how the Fire Nation worked, she thought. When they finally defeated the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe leaders, they would get rid of these petty local garrisons that did nothing but leeched off the productivity of citizens and insert troops disciplined by a proper Fire Nation military. The citizens would praise them once they realized that the Earth Kingdom propaganda machine was nothing but a veil of smoke over the truth.

"Thanks for not ratting me out," the young boy who had thrown the egg said to Azula. He stared admiringly at her for a moment before she decided to respond.

"No problem, kid. I hate men like that. All talk with nothing to back it up."

The boy grinned broadly. "Uh... my name's Lee, what's yours?"

Azula looked closely at the boy. His eyes seemed glazed over, his grin had spread to idiotic proportions, and his face was quite red. Obviously, he was suffering from some kind of heat stroke. "It's... ah... Bao Lan," she responded, picking a random name from her head as she held out her waterskin to the boy. "Here, you look a bit hot. I don't want to deal with you passing out."

Lee took the flask and stared at it wild-eyed. If she hadn't known there was no way this kid could be a firebender, she would have sworn steam was coming out of his ears. He touched the rim to his lips, his eyes drooping in a dreamy way before he even tasted the water. After finishing, he said, "Hey, who's the guy tied to the ostrich-horse? Is he a criminal?" His eyes shone excitedly.

Azula glanced at Zuko and responded, "Not exactly. He's my brother. Same thing."

Lee grinned. "Hey... um... ya wanna come to my house? You and your friends could crash there for the night. After all, I owe you for getting rid of those guards."

Azula considered. They had been going for awhile without a proper procession of guards. They deserved a rest after finding Zuko, too.

In another part of the province, Aang dodged a large boulder coming right at him. It hadn't been long after Toph had left with Sasuke that she had shown up again, deciding to take the three of them on alone. Sasuke and his three friends stood atop a cliff looking down on her as she relentlessly battered them. She seemed to be a bit more in control than before, content with simply fighting them rather than actually going for the kill. However, she was still quite skilled, and had managed to knock out Sokka with little trouble.

Katara and Aang together fared better, running interference for each other. Aang also attempted to mix his game up by using the occasional waterbending technique. However, Toph was almost precognitive in her defense. Sasuke realized with amusement that this blind girl's other senses actually allowed her to sense attacks even better than Neji Hyuuga's byakugan. Aside from that she had a prodigious knack for finding her opponents' weaknesses and exploiting them. That's why she had decided to trap them in a canyon. She knew that their fighting styles would be less effective in close quarters. She was currently backing them close to a narrower pass.

The two benders saw where they were being led, and knew not to back further down. They were poised to swerve around Toph. However, Toph knew they would be reluctant, and she raised sheets of rocks around the benders to cage them in. The stones she threw prevented Aang from leaping out. They tried to stand their ground, but she continued to push them back until they were trapped.

Katara could not use her water whip any way except from above, making her once unpredictable attack pattern suddenly limited. She was also unable to properly deflect Toph's attacks, forcing her to attempt to stop the blind girl's boulders with straight force versus force. Unfortunately, Katara was ill-matched against Toph in sheer power.

Aang, similarly, could not make use of his speed to dodge Toph's attacks or maneuver around her to opportunistically attack a weakness in her own defense. He was also forced to use the pure force of his wind to attack and defend, which simply required more energy to counter the momentum of a rock.

Toph, however, had an advantage in that the two benders were surrounded on two sides by her element besides standing on it. She was able to bypass their defenses entirely by projecting pillars out of the canyon walls, hitting them both at point blank range. Toph's opponents were now so outmatched she was almost sorry.

Aang struggled to remain in the fight. It was difficult to dodge the pillars coming at him from such close range, but he was halfway managing it. Katara, though, was having more trouble. She was getting hammered. It hurt to see the blood trickling down her chin, but he had to remain cool. He couldn't let his rising anger make him miss his chance. If there was one thing he was learning from fighting Toph, it was that he had to wait patiently for an opportunity to arise before he could make his move.

He saw it. Appa had just come into view, floating a few feet above the ground. He and Appa locked eyes, and both understood. Aang breathed deeply, his lungs filling with air. He expelled it with great force while striking with both open palms, blasting Toph with air. Toph began to raise a stone wall to block the attack, but at the same time, Appa landed with his rear facing the pass and whipped his tail down, creating a gust of air of his own which slammed into Toph before she could respond, and she was blown right into her own wall.

Aang grabbed Katara and leaped up the canyon walls. "Yip, yip, Aang!" he shouted. Appa flew up as well, and intercepted Aang and Katara as he passed over. They then flew away as quickly as they could.

"Well," Toph groaned as she pulled her face off the stone wall. "I guess he would make a good earthbender. 'Make your opponent's strength his weakness.'"

In the air, Katara breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought we weren't going to get out of that." She turned and smiled weakly at the young airbender. "Those were some nice moves back there."

"Thanks," Aang laughed, half crazed from the deadly experience. He laughed for a few more moments before falling silent.

Katara sighed again. Then she turned to Aang once more. "Hey, where's Sokka?"

A moaning sounded from the front of Appa's head. They turned to the source of the noise. "Wha?" they heard. "Where am... augh! Why am I all sticky?!" Sokka came scrambling out of Appa's mouth and onto his head. "Aang! Katara!" he shouted. "We're never going to talk about this, again!"

- - -

"You a... friend of Lee's?" Gansu, Lee's father, asked of Azula in a rather suggestive manner.

Lee ran out of the barn and addressed his father excitedly. "This girl and her friends just stood up to the soldiers! By the end, she had them running away."

Gansu's wife, Sela, clad in a simple green outfit, chimed in, "Does this girl have a name?"

"Ah, it's Bao Lan," she responded.

"Bao Lan, eh? Well, anyone who can hold his own against those bully 'soldiers' is welcome here," Gansu said. "Those men should be ashamed to wear Earth Kingdom uniforms."

"The real soldiers are off fighting the war," Sela said. "Like Lee's big brother Sen Su. Supper's going to be ready soon. Would you like to stay?"

Azula shrugged. "That would be lovely. Thank you."

Later that night, Mai entered the barn where Zuko was tied. He had been given a blanket and a pillow, of course, as the family they were staying with thought it improper to let one of their guests catch cold, even if he was a prisoner. "My shift guarding you is almost done. I thought I'd come see you before Karin takes over." Zuko was still awake, and turned to her. "Have you slept at all since we caught you?" Mai asked.

"No," he admitted. "I can't."

Mai sighed. "I understand." She sat down beside him, a reminiscent look on her face. "I still remember when it happened. It was around three years ago, wasn't it?"

Zuko turned curiously toward the pale, slender visage that seemed to float beside him. "Yeah... I remember three years ago..."

- - -

"My brother has just been challenged to an Agni Kai."

"What?" Mai asked, a horrified expression on her face. "B-b-but... but who would want to challenge Zuko?"

"Zuzu decided to poopoo a plan at the war meeting," Azula explained. "Now the dumb-dumb's gonna pay for it."

"Wh-what? Why would he do that? What was the plan?" Mai exclaimed.

"Who cares?" Azula asked. "Father says Zuzu acted disgracefully. He should be ashamed of himself." She scowled. "Sometimes I can't believe I'm related to that dork."

Mai fell silent. If she didn't know Azula so well, she would be surprised that she was less concerned about her brother than Mai, herself, was. Of course, Azula and Zuko had always had some sibling rivalry, and it had only gotten worse when their mother disappeared and Ozai became Fire Lord. The dark haired girl looked back at Azula, who was applying ludicrous amounts of red paint to her lips. "Why are you putting on all that make up, anyway?" she asked. "You're going to an Agni Kai, not on a date."

"Father says I should look more mature," Azula said. "A little girl won't inspire fear in her troops, but a strong woman can."

- - -

"Azula was pleased when she found out it was Ozai, himself, who was to fight her brother," Mai continued. "Even she couldn't guess that Ozai would actually go as far as he did." The somber girl shook her head. "Even Azula was shaken up seeing that horrible sight. She told us he deserved it, but I could see how troubled she was about it. I... I remember the screams," she said, her eyes tearing up. "I knew... it had to be painful, not just physically, but emotionally."

Zuko looked away uncomfortably. "Y-yeah..."

"But that wasn't anything compared to what happened after..."

- - -

Mai stood beside her mother and father. Zuko walked down the main street of the palace, an escort leading him to his ship in the harbor on the edge of the capital, where his ship, which would be his home from now on, unless he found the Avatar who had been missing for one hundred years. The left side of his face had been bandaged. The hair on that side of his head had been shaved far back as well in order to bandage it. He looked about with his good eye, and his countrymen greeted him with cold eyes. He was branded a disgrace by the Fire Lord, and his opinion was his subjects' opinion. It wasn't fair, Mai felt, her eyes watering.

"Mai," her mother said in a sharp whisper. "We do not weep in public. Especially not for a shameful coward."

Mai's father nodded. "Prince Zuko is no longer a son of the Fire Nation. It is fortunate our Fire Lord is so forgiving that he has been given a chance at redemption. If he finds and captures the Avatar..."

"He's not going to find the Avatar!" Mai cried, audible even to Zuko, who turned, hearing the familiar voice. Mai met his eyes, her tears now streaming freely down her face. "Zuko! I'm not going to let them take you away!" she determined. She broke away from the line of spectators, reaching for her love. She careened into him, clutching him tightly, but the guards tore her from him, holding her inches away from him. "At least take me with you, please!"

Zuko gazed into her desperate eyes, his face pained. But he said nothing. He looked away. "Keep her here," he told the guards. Then he turned his back on her, and walked away.

- - -

"I knew why," Mai said. "It was to protect me." She looked back at Zuko's silent form. "I know a lot of things have changed in the past three years, but one thing has never changed." She leaned over to him, taking Zuko's chin in her hand. She pressed her lips to his, breathing in his musky scent. She released him after a few moments and looked smugly at him. "Consider that a 'thank you,'" she said. "We'll be meeting Sasuke in the Grass Province."

Zuko watched in awe as she rose and left the barn. "Wow... that's some girl." He shook his head. "No time for that! Ugh... I can't stay awake for another minute. I think it's time to disappear." He exhaled and closed his eyes, and his body dissipated in a puff of smoke.

- - -

Naruto woke up with a start. He looked around and saw Jiraiya and Zuko looking at him nearby. It looked like it was morning. "Whoa," he breathed. "What happened?"

"You passed out," Zuko responded.

"Right," Naruto said. "My shadow clone merged with me, and I guess its exhaustion kinda hit me all at once." He looked suddenly at Zuko. "Zuzu?"

"Shut up," he growled.

- - -

"Alright," Toph said. "So they're cleverer than they look. But I would have had them without that bison in the way."

Sasuke nodded. "I wasn't aware that the air bison had that kind of airbending ability."

"Of course," Suigetsu chided. "The airbenders learned how to airbend from the bison. I guess you wouldn't have known that, though, coming from the Fire Nation. Even I wouldn't have known, admittedly, except that the Mizukage once mentioned it in passing. He was quite knowledgeable in ancient lore."

Juugo, who had been silent for most of the conversation, spoke up. "I don't know if you should use the curse mark like that, anymore," he cautioned. "I know firsthand... even though you feel stronger, you lose focus."

"Are you kidding?" Toph asked, incredulous. "I've never felt more perceptive. I can feel things I've never felt before. Not just through earthbending, either, but everything excluding actual sight is better." She harrumphed haughtily. "Besides, I can control myself. The first time was just because I was unprepared. Now I'm in complete control."

"You're right," Sasuke said. "You're much better at it, now." He activated his own cursed seal, and black marks like flames danced across his flesh, eventually enveloping his whole body, turning it a dark gray. He entered the second stage easily, though he withheld his wings. "You may be ready for the next step. This will bring your potential out completely."

"Completely, huh?" Toph pondered. "So I can go even further?"

"Yes," Sasuke said. "But there's a cost. Your body will pay a price every time it enters this state. Your lifespan may even be shortened if this power is abused."

Toph considered this. It was frightening to think that she might die if she pushed her power further. However, she loved this feeling of power. She couldn't get enough of it, and she didn't want to say "no" to even more. Besides, it was her father who wanted to protect her out of fear of her death, robbing her of true life. "I'm game," she said. "What do I have to do?"

Juugo put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "Wait, Sasuke. You can't seriously be considering..."

Sasuke glanced at Juugo, his eyes full of determination. "There is an enzyme that will speed the transformation. Come, and I will give it to you."

- - -

"How could you let him escape?" Azula hissed.

"Don't blame me," Karin said. "His presence just... disappeared!"

"Zuko can't just disa—" she paused. "Monkey feathers!" She realized what had happened. Zuko must have hidden, and when she beat Naruto, he hadn't truly gone unconscious. He consciously dispelled all but one clone. They had baited her, and then let her see exactly what she wanted.

"So what are we going to do, now?" Mai asked dispassionately.

Azula sighed. "We'll move on. I have a feeling Zuko won't need to be found at this point. We'll meet up with Sasuke. Hopefully he'll have captured the Avatar, and we can focus on my brother when he comes to us." She led her partners out of the small room, fuming but acceptant of her predicament. It was time that they moved on, and soon they were being seen off by Lee's family.

Lee, himself, seemed forlorn. "Do you really have to go? Can't you stay one more night, Bao Lan?"

Gansu chuckled at his son. "I'm sorry, Miss, but it looks like Lee really likes you."

"Of course," Azula said, not particularly surprised. After all, everyone at the palace really liked her. They had to, of course, because anyone who crossed her would only do so once. "He's a smart kid." She smirked. Actually, the kid reminded her of Zuko when he was that age. She'd have liked it if he had been as agreeable as Lee was, however. "I'm afraid I can't dally, though."

"Can I at least walk you to the city limits?" Lee requested excitedly.

"Well, I don't think you'd be—" Azula started. The child's eyes widened and shimmered, which gave Azula pause. She didn't quite know what he was doing.

"I don't think it would hurt," Mai interjected. "Bao Lan is a bit shy, but I think she would really love to have you along."

"Whatever," Azula responded.

They strolled toward the edge of town, Lee fawning over Azula like a pig-pup. The princess noted the boy's irrational devotion to her, and decided that he might be of some use. "Hey, kid," she said after they had lost sight of the farm. She took out Zuko's dagger. "If you want to be our guide, you should have a means to defend yourself." She handed the knife to Lee, and he snatched it up gleefully.

"Oh, wow! This is awesome," He said. "With this, I'll always remember you!"

"It was my brother's actually," she said. "He always made a big deal about it."

Lee unsheathed the blade. "There's something written on here," he realized.

Azula's face reddened. "Y-yeah... there's no need to..."

"Made in Earth Kingdom," Lee read.

Azula rolled her eyes. "Right..." She sighed and offered "Just remember: if you see one of those soldiers, go for the knees."

Not far away, Naruto surveyed a familiar farm. "That's it," he said. "They were staying at that place."

"We should be able to track them from here," Jiraiya presumed.

Zuko nodded. "And they'll lead us to their meeting spot in the Grass Province."

They began to walk toward the farmhouse. As they approached, they saw a group of Earth Kingdom soldiers approaching from the opposite side of the house. When they got close enough to hear the exchange between the occupants of the house and the soldiers, they knew something rotten was going down.

"You boys here what the Fire Nation did with their last group of Earth Kingdom prisoners?" the man at the head of the group asked one of his comrades.

**"**Dressed them up in Fire Nation uniforms and put them on the frontline unarmed, way I heard it," the soldier responded, spitting on the ground. "Then they just watched."

"You watch your mouth!" The man of the house growled.

The lead soldier approached, and seemed intent on some kind of retribution. "We can't let these guys bully helpless people!" Naruto protested.

"We can't let ourselves get sidetracked by the troubles of foreign peasants," Zuko replied harshly.

Naruto scowled at Zuko. "I don't think you believe that. After all, you're not much more than a foreign peasant here. You think your problems are so much more important than others'? You need to get over yourself, then."

Zuko looked away, cowed by the blond's reprisal. "Fine, let's do this, then."

Gow struck Gansu, taking him to the ground. "You should watch _your_ mouth! You should be more grateful. If not for us, some Fire Nation scum could just walk onto your farm and start making trouble!"

"Hey, jerk," a voice said from behind Gansu and his wife. Gow looked up to see a blond boy and an old man, as well as that prisoner the little girls had. "Why don't you leave these people alone?"

"What do you think you can do about it, brat?" Gow sneered. "What business is it of yours, anyway?"

"We've made it our business," Zuko replied. "Now get out of here."

"Who do you think you are, telling us what to do?" Gow rumbled.

"It doesn't matter who I am," Zuko stated. "But I know who you are. You're not soldiers, you're bullies!"

Naruto nodded affirmatively. "That's right. You think just 'cause you have a little power, you can use it to do whatever you feel like! That's not what power is for. Real power means protecting those who don't have the ability to protect themselves. It means sacrifice and dedication!"

Gow turned to his men. "Are you going to stand there and let some strangers insult you like this?"

The soldiers responded by advancing on the two young men, spears at the ready.

- - -

Aang and Katara stood upon the surface of a lake facing each other. The young Avatar formed a series of hand seals and his spiritual energy rose, as did a pillar of water. The water began to take on a humanoid shape and then it began to turn opaque and take on flesh, orange and yellow hues. Finally, the humanoid water had taken on the exact coloration of Aang. However...

"Aang... why is your clone all... wavy?" Sokka asked.

The clone indeed looked as if it still had the consistency of water, in spite having realistic texture and coloration. It was rather creepy. "Um... Aang," Katara said. "You need to concentrate a little more. Visualize yourself as vividly as you can and control your energy." Katara demonstrated, going through the seals quickly, causing three perfect clones of her made of water appear in a splash of water. "Like that."

Aang sighed, allowing his malformed clone to melt back into the lake. "This hand seal thing is weird. We've been practicing this technique for days, and I still can't get it."

"You're improving, Aang," Katara said. "You'll have it in no time; you just need to focus is all."

The young airbender nodded. "I guess..."

"Um, hey guys?" Sokka said. "I think we might have a problem..."

Katara looked over to her brother. "What is it, Sok--?" she trailed off as she saw the boy wrapped in chains, surrounded by four familiar and unwelcome faces. "Sasuke!" she gasped. Then she frowned at her brother. "Wait... Sokka, how did you already get captured?"

Sokka shrugged as Ty Lee ran her hand through his hair and cooed at him.

"You were quite impressive, yesterday," Sasuke admitted to the benders. "However, I think it's time to end this game of mongoose-cat and rat-snake." He removed a large barrel covered in seals from his back and set it on the ground. "In this container is the means of your defeat, Avatar."

"I don't think so!" Katara said. She struck at the Uchiha, sending tendrils of water blasting toward the boy. They hit, flinging him back, but his body suddenly erupted into a bloom of liquid. Suddenly one of Katara's clones found itself slashed in two, while a split second later, the second had a blade skewered through its throat. The last clone reacted by performing a ninjutsu that formed the water into four liquid fangs that battered the shinobi. Unfortunately, this Sasuke was also a water clone.

Another Sasuke grasped the Katara clone from below and pulled her under, and then he rose from the lake like an apparition. "Are you ready to surrender?" He was between Aang and Katara, subject to attack from both sides. He would know that they could easily take him down in such a position. Aang watched for any sign of the true Uchiha, for he knew this had to be another clone.

"You should know we would never surrender to you or the Fire Nation," Katara said firmly. "Aang is the world's last hope for peace. I'll never let that hope go."

Sasuke snorted. "Your idealistic talk is nice, but to be honest, I don't care about peace or hope. All I live for is killing that man. That's the only reason I'm continuing on this path. He will come back to you, Avatar. I know it."

"Listen," Aang said. "I don't know what exactly Itachi did to make you hate him so much, but..." Aang shifted his stance, raising his right hand. "You can leave me out of it!" he jammed his palm downward, and the currents beneath the water's surface shifted, and Sasuke suddenly blasted out of the lake. Katara slashed at the water clone in that instant, decapitating it. The real Sasuke landed daintily on the ground.

"Perceptive, Aang," Sasuke said. "This is going to be interesting." He turned to Suigetsu and Ty Lee, saying, "Release her." The two obeyed, ripping the seals from the barrel, allowing it to collapse. Toph emerged, looking as if she had just woken up from a deep sleep. She staggered forward, a dazed look on her face. She stopped and turned her head in the general direction of Aang.

"Hey... Twinkletoes," she breathed. "I'm back. This time we're really gonna let loose."

- - -

"Bye, Bao Lan," Lee said dreamily. "I... I'll never forget you."

"Good," Azula responded. "You shouldn't." After all, her father would soon rule the whole world, with her by his side. Perhaps she would give the boy's family a title when it was all over. Provided they weren't destroyed in the war and remained loyal to her, of course.

Lee launched himself at Azula's torso, wrapping his arms around her and giving her a big squeeze before turning and running back toward home, his eyes shimmering with unshed tears. The young princess looked after him as he ran with a surprised look on her face. "That boy..." she started. "He will make a skilled warrior. His attack was swift if lacking power. That comes with age, of course."

Mai stifled a laugh. Karin was in full agreement. For all her shrewdness in battle and genius firebending skills, she had no clue when it came to anything romantic. She shook her head and followed the princess out of town.

As the three girls left town, Naruto and Zuko stood over the beaten soldiers. The ones who were conscious slinked away shamefully. Gow stepped forward, unfazed by the boys' skill. He took out two battle hammers and took an earthbending stance. Zuko drew his broadswords and Naruto took out a kunai. Gow stomped on the ground, causing a rock to jump out of the ground, and he hit it with his hammer. Zuko shattered the stone with his blades, but Gow continued to hammer a barrage of stones at both young men. Zuko managed to slice through most of them, while Naruto dodged around the attacks, making his way toward Gow. Zuko was pummeled by one, however, causing him to collapse to the ground. Naruto made it to the soldier, but he dodged a strike from the shinobi and hit him over the head with his weapon.

Naruto rolled across the ground with the hit and recovered a few feet from Gow. He took a moment to shake off the fog and created two shadow clones. The earthbender was shocked at this development, but he didn't let that stop him. He upped his attacks, launching rocks furiously at both men. Zuko began to take some really hard hits, while Naruto and his clones were able to dodge about more effectively, with the three Narutos watching each others' backs, getting each other out of harm's way as they dodged their own projectiles. However, the soldier evenutally hit Naruto's clones hard, causing them to dissipate after protecting the true shinobi from the strikes. Both of the young men were being driven back by the attacks, but the final blow came when Gow hit both hammers on the ground, sending a shockwave through the earth that upturned the boys.

Gow panted heavily as the dust settled. Both young men were flat on their backs, but they weren't done yet. The blond boy was still stirring, trying to sit up. The scarred one was still, but his muscles were still rigid and ready for action. The man smirked and took a step toward the blond, ready to finish them off. Before he took his second step he heard Gensu's wife shout, and a small voice say "Hey, pig-sloth!" Then a sharp pain in the back of his right knee caused his leg to buckle under him. He looked behind him and saw Lee looking smugly at him, his hands on a dagger that was driven hilt-deep into him.

"You little brat!" Gow snarled, slapping the child away. He reached behind him and pulled the knife out, tossing it aside. Then he limped toward Lee, now intent on revenge for the sneak attack.

Naruto saw Gow approaching Lee. The boy's father tried to intervene, but the farmer was no match for a trained soldier, even a wounded one. "If he's old enough to fight, he's old enough to join the army. He's coming with _me_!" Gow raised his hammer, ready to knock Lee out with a sharp blow to the head.

Naruto could see that he was too far away to get to Lee, and Zuko was too far away as well. "Sorry, pervy sage," he said as he shifted his stance. "Looks like I'm gonna have to risk it."

"Naruto!" Jiraiya shouted, starting forward. He had stayed out of the fight thus far because he wanted to judge the extent of their skills against an earthbending opponent. However, his student was about to do something tremendously stupid. "Don't!"

The blond shinobi shot his palm out and suddenly a tremendous jet stream slammed into Gow, knocking him aside. Zuko took advantage of the situation and leaped toward the soldier. He swung his blades, flames dancing from them and slammed into Gow, knocking him into the dirt. He tried to get up, but Naruto had raced into the fray with a sphere of energy. He jammed it into the man's stomach and shouted "Rasengan!"

Gow hit the ground again, barely conscious. He tried to raise his head and asked, "Wh-who are you guys?"

"The name's Naruto, shinobi of the village hidden in the leaves, and the future Fire Shadow!"

"My name is Zuko. Son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai. Prince of the Fire Nation and heir to the throne."

Gow passed out at their introduction. Zuko walked over to his dagger which Lee used to stab Gow. He picked it up and looked at the inscription. "I was hoping I could get this back. My uncle gave it to me when I was a kid." He turned to look at Lee, who was staring in shock at the two young men. "Did Azula give it to you?"

"Wh-what?" Lee asked.

"'Bao Lan,'" Naruto said. "That's what she called herself."

Lee nodded in the affirmative. "Y-yeah. She did."

"First good thing she's done that I can remember," Zuko said. He walked over to the boy and held out the dagger. "Here. You're a brave kid. You deserve it."

Lee backed up, a twinkle of fear in his eyes. "N-no! Just go away!" He ran back to his mother and hid behind her legs. Sela glared at Zuko.

"Don't come near us!"

Zuko looked down at his dagger for a moment, reading the inscription through blood spatters. Then he wiped the blade clean and put it away. He turned and motioned to Naruto. "Let's go. We won't find Sasuke by sitting still."

- - -

"Rock is a stubborn element, stubborn and strong," Toph said. "There's no other angle, no clever solution, no trick that will move it. You have to face it..." she leaped into the air and came down upon Aang. "_Head on_!" The airbender managed to dodge her attack, and her head slammed into a large rock, shattering it.

"Whoa!" Aang exclaimed. This girl was intense.

Katara, meanwhile, lashed out toward Sokka with a sheet of water, intending to free her brother from his chains, but Suigetsu countered with his own attack. Katara shot forth, trailing torrents of water behind her.

Toph attacked Aang with steady fierceness. Her cursed seal flowed across her skin, and she used its strength to push the Avatar back. However, the boy's agility was prodigious and his speed was unhindered in the more open area they were in now. He evaded the girl's attacks deftly, and struck with bolts of wind that rocked the earthbender.

Suigetsu was knocked about by Katara's wave, and she slashed Sokka's chains apart before he recovered. The Water Tribe warrior immediately rolled away from his captors and pulled out his boomerang. Sasuke, meanwhile, took hold of Katara's wrist and twisted her arm. The waterbender flowed through the hold and locked his arm, sweeping his legs out from under him and slamming him into the ground. The Uchiha lifted himself up, then, with his left arm and flipped himself and Katara over, slamming her onto the ground before leaping to his feet once the waterbender released his arm due to the force of the impact.

Sokka swung at Ty Lee as she approached him, but with a quick series of jabs, his good arm was deadened and hung limp. He struck with his other arm, soon finding that useless as well. His attempted kick met with similar results. Ty Lee struck once more at the boy standing on one leg, but his head shot forward, forcing her to jam her fingertips into the boy's hard skull. She pulled back in pain and, shaking it off, glared icily at him. "Good try, but no," Sokka quipped.

Aang, having noticed Sasuke's counterattack on Katara, diverted his attention to shoot a torpedo of water at him, however, his attention was best spent elsewhere, as he found when Toph rammed a pillar into his chest, sending him flying into a boulder. He dodged subsequent attacks for the most part, but she was beginning to wear him down. He realized that he needed to take advantage of her blindness, but he couldn't do that with both feet on the ground.

Katara recovered from her fall to find the Uchiha dodging an attack from Aang. That gave her an opportunity. She wrapped a stream of water around the boy's ankle and yanked his foot out from under him. Then she raised the surrounding water from the ground and brought it crashing down upon him. However, at the same moment, Suigetsu decided to attack her with a similarly powerful wave, tossing her back into the middle of the lake.

Toph suddenly lost track of the Avatar. Though her seal was pulsing full blast and her senses were at their max, it seemed he had left the ground completely. She heard the loud splash of Katara hitting the water, and the wet sound drowned out the sound of a water whip whistling through the air. However, she didn't miss the sting of it slapping across her face. The Avatar had taken to the lake as well, it seemed, and he was attacking her from that position, making her truly blind to his attacks.

The airbender whipped the water around him, striking at Toph with great force, causing her to fall back and erect stalagmites of protection. However, the flexible nature of water allowed him to weave his attack around her defense, attacking her from unexpected angles.

Suigetsu lunged at Katara, his head cleaving sword at the ready. He struck, but Katara deflected the blow with a current of water. The two traded several blows before the sharp-toothed shinobi kneed her in the ribs. He put in a few more devastating shots before hefting his head-cleaving sword above the waterbender, swinging it downward.

Sasuke's straight-sword intercepted Suigetsu's swipe inches from Katara's skull. The waterbender lay in the water, shocked that the blade had come so close to splitting her head open. Sasuke glared at Suigetsu with his cold sharingan. "No killing," he said. "Or I'll put an end to you."

The Mist ninja backed away. "Che... have you gone soft, Sasuke?"

"Maybe you haven't heard of what the Avatar did in the North Pole. Do you really want to risk him entering that state now?"

Toph struck desperately in Aang's general direction, but the Avatar evaded the strikes easily. The earthbender's curse mark covered her body. She now felt something more happening, though. Something stirred within her, pushing her further. As water whipped across her face, the veins in her eyes turned black. The darkness spread across her corneas until they became dark fields around milky irises. Her hat flew off her head and her hair ripped out of its bun. Her strikes came harder and faster. They began to become somewhat more accurate. She could almost feel his location through the vibrations of the water on the earth beneath it. Almost.

Katara, at the same time, had struck back at Suigetsu. The waterbender wrapped the lake water around the ninja and solidified the sphere into a hard shell. Sasuke attacked her from behind, however, easily overwhelming her defenses and gaining dominance in the fight.

The gaia seal had taken over Toph's flesh completely, turning her skin completely dark. It lightened slightly to a dark gray while her long, wild hair bleaching on the sides, leaving a black streak down the center of her hair. Three horns sprouted from the left side of her head while one larger horn grew out of the right. Toph's hands and feet began to enlarge, and her fingers became more like badger-mole claws. A thick tail emerged from under her tunic and slapped itself on the ground, cracking the rocky ground.

Aang's eyes widened upon seeing this. "Toph? What... what has he done to you?"

"Just brought out my full potential," Toph replied, a smirk on her face. She had never felt such power. And her perceptions were even sharper than they had been. She could feel where Aang's feet touched the water just by feeling the way the energy waves he caused by standing on the water hit the earth beneath. However, as she attacked, she realized there was still a flaw in this method. It took time for the wave to reach the lake bed. That meant she was operating on dated intelligence.

She motioned with her hands and the lake bed rose, and the lake water flowed out onto the dry ground. Aang flowed forward with the water, and once the lake bed became level with the rest of the ground and the water became thin, the Avatar's feet sank to touch the ground. At that moment, Aang found himself assaulted on all sides by pillars of earth. He couldn't evade them at the speed they emerged, and he found himself being pummeled, his consciousness fading with each hit.

Katara lashed out at Sasuke with the muddy water that suddenly surrounded them. The Uchiha received two dirty slaps in the face before he subdued the waterbender and clamped metal cuff on her hands and feet. "You won't get away with this!" she protested. "Aang will stop you!"

Sasuke scoffed. "You play the damsel in distress well," he said. He picked her up and carried her over to his brother, who was quite prone at this point. "It must run in the family..." he quipped, tossing her to the ground and turned toward Toph. Ty Lee and Juugo followed.

Toph slammed Aang into a rocky cliff, letting him fall to the ground, barely alert. "You're nowhere near as tough as I thought you were." She slapped her tail against the ground, popping the Avatar's body into an upright position. He staggered, but remained standing, albeit shaky on his feet. "You'll certainly never be an earthbender if you can't stand still and take it like a man!" She clenched her fists and took a strong stance.

"That's enough," Sasuke said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "We'll have no problem capturing him now. However, if you push him any further, you might cause him to enter the Avatar State. In that state he would have the power of countless past lives. Even the five of us working together might not be able to beat him, then."

"Is that right?" Toph asked. She felt herself growing excited at this. The prospect of fighting the Avatar with all his past lives power behind him... that would be quite a battle. She could feel Juugo's flesh roiling with excitement as well, dark patches snaking their way around his face. But she knew Sasuke wouldn't let her properly threaten him in order to trigger the life saving mechanism of the Avatar State. But perhaps something else could cause the same effect: something of which Sasuke wouldn't be able to get in the way. She sensed the girl with whom Aang had been traveling squirming on the ground a small distance away, and could also feel a large chunk of stone which hung precariously overhead. It would normally take years for gravity to pull the stone down upon the girl and her brother, but with a small amount of earthbending, it could come down instantly. She had felt Aang's reaction to the girl's presence. His heartbeat elevated with her proximity, and especially when she touched him. She obviously meant much to him. If she were to endanger her life, even kill her...

"Toph," Sasuke said. He was concerned with her agitated expression. Perhaps pushing her into the second stage of the cursed seal was unwise. Without proper discipline, the violent tendencies the cursed mark's chemistry brought out could overwhelm even the most pacifistic individual. "Don't do anything foolish."

The earthbender smirked. She twitched her head and the shaky foundation of the large stone hanging over Katara and Sokka burst, allowing it to fall. Sasuke turned to the falling rock. It was big enough to crush them both, and even his speed wouldn't allow him to make it in time to stop it. That was assuming the rock wouldn't crush him, as well. Perhaps he could destroy it with a fire blast, but it was unlikely to divert or fragment the boulder enough to avoid serious injury.

Sasuke didn't have to act in this case. Aang had seen the rock falling immediately. His instincts took over. His body lurched forward and his arms swung wide, pushing the air out of his way, reducing the wind resistance as he ran as he simultaneously increased the wind speed at his back. As he reached his friends, the stone was already at eye level. Without thinking, he dove feet first under the stone. The only thing on his mind now as the boulder descended on him and his friends was that he would not allow it to fall any further. It simply would not and there was no room for negotiation. His arm was pressed as far into the ground as it could get and he shot it up into the rock as hard as he could. His fist entered it and the stone cracked. It stalled on his hand for a moment before he curled his legs to his chest and kicked both feet into the boulder. It shattered, the pieces flying away from him and his friends.

Toph was amazed. This kid really could be a talented earthbender. It had taken mortal danger to get him into the right mindset, but he had really done it. Suddenly she noticed something. It was a special vibration in the air. It was like a beacon of light in the darkness. And it seemed to be getting bigger. She dropped to the ground as a large fragment of stone hit her right between the eyes.

Sasuke looked in exasperation at the now unconscious Toph. She had allowed herself to become distracted. He looked back at the young Avatar, who was glaring daggers at him, currently. "Alright... it looks like I'll have to finish this, myself. No more playing around."

Aang's eyes and tattoos began to glow. "I don't think so," he declared, gesturing casually, which caused a chasm to open between Team Snake and Aang's gang. Dust erupted from the opening obscuring the trio of adventurers from view. Sasuke leaped through the cloud, only to see Aang and his friends riding off on the large, six legged air bison.

Sasuke glowered at the retreating figures. "Curse it."


	9. Pursuit

**Elements of War**

**Chapter 08  
Pursuit  
**

"So you're an airbender!"

"Air... bender?" Naruto asked innocently. "Well... not exactly. I mean, yeah, I know how to use the wind element, but..."

"Trust me," Zuko said. "I've seen airbending, and that was it."

Jiraiya sighed. "I told you not to use those techniques in front of someone you weren't going to kill."

"Shove it, pervy sage," Naruto said. "I had to."

"I thought there were no airbenders left," Zuko said. "I've heard rumors of survivors, but I've never found any..."

"That's because the only people left who can use that element are shinobi," Jiraiya said. "Though plenty of shinobi who could use the wind element were tracked down and executed, themselves. That's why it's so rare even among us to find someone who can use that element. Naruto is one of the few left."

"I didn't even know I could do it until we went to the Eastern Airtemple here in the Earth Kingdom. I found some scrolls there which I thought was just taijutsu, so I tried to train with them a bit, but then some old guy showed up."

- - -

Naruto's feet swept across the floor as he moved his arms in a circular motion. He had been practicing these forms every night in the two weeks since they had come to this temple. His taijutsu had been insufficient to defeat Sasuke in their encounter nearly a year prior. He had hoped to improve with these old scrolls, but he was really getting impatient with his progress.

"Not bad, young man," a thick voice said to him. "But you're lacking something essential."

"What?" Naruto asked, spinning around to find an old man garbed in nothing but a loincloth sitting lotus style on the ground. "Who are you, old man?"

"The important question is: 'who are _you?_'"

"My name is Naruto," the boy responded.

The old man shook his head. "That is your name, but that does not encompass what you truly are."

"Well..."

- - -

"Pathik," Zuko realized. "Yeah, I ran into him once, myself. Kind of creepy old guy, but he didn't have any information for me about airbenders or the Avatar, so..."

"Yeah, well..." Naruto said. "The old guru guy wanted to do some kind of 'reading' on me, I guess... and..."

- - -

Pathik's hand touched Naruto's head and he reached into the shinobi's essence. He could sense the pain and anger in the boy's soul. His loneliness and his regret. His deep love for his friends. Further, he could feel the beastly presence of a wild spirit separate from Naruto, but intertwined inexorably. He removed his hand and looked into the boy's eyes with sympathy. "You have seen much pain and loss in such a short time," he said. "But I see that you have much inner strength in you."

"Uh... thanks," Naruto said. "So what... what am I missing about these forms?"

"These forms you have been practicing are meant for airbenders," Pathik said. "The problem you are having is not one of pure form but of spirit. You approach the forms with aggression more suited to firebending, but airbending is performed with a peaceful spirit."

"So... how do I fight with a peaceful spirit?" Naruto asked.

"First, you must drink this," Pathik informed him, holding a bowl out to him with a yellow liquid inside

- - -

"He fed you onion and banana juice?" Zuko asked. "That's just sick."

"You get used to it, though," Naruto said. "Anyway, he had me do a lot of meditating. He said that I had to clear away my chakras so that the chakra energy could flow more easily within."

- - -

"First we will open the Earth chakra, located at the base of the spine. It deals with survival and is blocked by fear," Pathik told Naruto as they sat Indian style facing each other. "What are you most afraid of? Let your fears become clear to you."

Naruto looked deep into his soul, trying to dredge up his deepest fears. He saw Gaara's face as he had been during the chuunin exam. Full of hatred and loneliness. He saw Gaara's face morph into his own. Then more scenes from his past flashed through his mind. Zabuza ready to strike him down, Sakura being squeezed to death by Gaara's sand claw, the demon fox's power coursing through him, its aggressive personality pushing him onward, Itachi looking coldly down at him with his sharingan, Sasuke morphing into his cursed form. Orochimaru's serpentine eyes glaring coldly as he laughed inhumanly.

- - -

"It took weeks to unlock that chakra," Naruto explained. "It was pretty intense. But that was just the beginning."

- - -

"The water chakra deals with pleasure, and is blocked by guilt," Pathik explained. "Now, look at all the guilt which burdens you so. What do you blame yourself for?"

Naruto remembered seeing Sakura in the hospital after his failed attempt to bring Sasuke back. "I couldn't keep a promise. An important one. I couldn't bring my friend back."

"Accept that in life you will fail, but do not let that cloud and poison your energy. If you are to be a positive influence on the world, you need to forgive yourself."

- - -

"Third is the fire chakra. It deals with power and is blocked by shame. What are your biggest disappointments in yourself?"

"_You... are the nine-tailed fox spirit that destroyed the village!!" Mizuki growled. "Until, at last, our beloved hero, the Fourth Hokage, trapped and bound you... in this form."_

"I have something locked up inside me," Naruto said. "Something that's so evil... that I've been hated by everyone for as long as I can remember..."

"_Since then, you've been made a fool of by everyone in town!" Mizuki continued, staring down the young boy whose eyes were down turned in agony at what had been revealed to him. "Didn't you think it was strange? To be so despised, everywhere you went? If he were honest, even noble Iruka would admit he hates you, too!"_

"Even though I know I'm not the same as the fox," Naruto said. "Still..."

_Iruka crouched over Naruto, having taken the giant shuriken meant for him. Tears ran down his teacher's face and he said, "I... I know that, Naruto. I was hard on you, yelling, scolding... it must have hurt... forgive me. If I'd been a better teacher... a better self... maybe neither of us would have come to this."_

"You and the nine-tailed fox are now one. You may be blamed by others for the fox's misdeeds, and you may be reviled for this, but you must realize this is a part of you that you must accept if you are to find balance, and you must forgive this part of yourself. You must also realize that you are more than the demon fox, and it is that part of you that also makes you distinct from the fox's past self."

- - -

"The fourth chakra is located in the heart. It deals with love, and is blocked by grief," Pathik said. "Lay all your grief out in front of you."

Naruto saw Haku in his mind's eye. The first person he had felt for that he had lost. Then he saw the Third Hokage, who had been killed protecting the village from Orochimaru, and who had acted almost as a father figure to him. Both disappeared. Then he saw Sasuke. The young man turned from him and began walking away. He ran after him, desperate to catch up, but he couldn't seem to reach him even though Sasuke was walking fairly slowly. Then the boy faded.

"You have been pained by the loss of those close to you, but love is a form of energy, and it swirls all around us." Naruto saw the faces of the three people merging together as the guru spoke. "Your friends' love for you has not left this world. It is still inside of your heart, and is reborn in the form of new love." Naruto saw the three faces blur as they merged and bright green eyes shone at him, framed by strawberry locks.

"_Next time, we'll do it together."_

Then he saw the faces of Kakashi, of the other nine junior ninja, the sand siblings, and all the other allies he had met since becoming apart of Team 7.

"Let the pain flow away. Very good."

- - -

"It took months to get to that point," Naruto said. "Though by that time, it had gotten pretty easy to bust through those chakras."

"Sounds... uh... thrilling," Zuko replied. "So... what about the airbending?"

"Well, after about a month of meditation, I'd started to get a feel for the philosophy of airbending," Naruto explained. "So by the time I opened the air chakra, I was pretty comfortable with it." He sighed. "I wasn't really able to finish my training, though. I got through the Sound and Light chakras okay, but for some reason, I got hung up on the last one: the Thought Chakra. And... something happened."

"What's that?" Zuko asked.

"Well... I'm not too sure," Naruto said. "I blacked out during one of the meditation sessions, and when I came to... the pervy sage was injured somehow. He didn't really go into details."

The old man averted his eyes.

"Guru Pathik said that I wouldn't be able to fully unblock the last chakra for awhile," he continued. "Something had happened that interfered with it."

"That's... strange," Zuko said.

"Hey, that's enough chatting," Jiraiya interjected. "Listen, if you guys are going to go after Sasuke and Orochimaru by yourselves, you'll need more training."

"Training?" Zuko asked. "What kind of training?"

"Well," Jiraiya replied. "You already know some basic ninjutsu, from what I could see of your performance as the Blue Spirit."

Zuko's left cheek tinged. "Yes. Uncle taught me the art of substitution and how to make clones."

"Pretty bare bones... of course, I guess General Iroh could only pick up so many of our secret techniques when he fought with the Leaf Village in the war," Jiraiya said. "Well, I guess you can show me what you've got, first."

Zuko complied, creating a few hand signs. His spiritual energy flowed through him and outward, causing two clones to appear. They were somewhat translucent but accurate.

"Hmm," Jiraiya pondered. "Your technique is okay, but your chakra control is pitiful."

Zuko's eyebrow lowered. "What do you mean, exactly?"

"You're wasting too much of your energy. First thing you'll need to do is learn how to conserve your energy. That way you won't run out of stamina too quickly," Jiraiya explained. "Naruto can get away with that kind of waste, but you won't."

"So how am I going to do that?" Zuko asked.

"I'll teach you a technique that will deal with control of your completely elemental-neutral energy, first," the Toad Sage explained. "Using the power of your chakra energy, you can cling to surfaces such as trees or stone walls, and even walk across the water's surface."

"Really?" Zuko asked.

"That's right," Jiraiya said.

- - -

Thunder boomed through the air as Appa raced forward, carrying his partner and friends away from the giant serpent that pursued them. Rain pelted the bison's fur as he flew, making it quite difficult to see where he was going, but he knew if he slowed down his admittedly reckless pace, those crazy humans would be upon them. He felt his wet fur tingling again as the creepy spiky haired boy charged his electrical field. The bison tried to veer out of the way of the bolt, but he wasn't quite fast enough this time. Fortunately, his partner's potential mate was. She bent the rain drops into a solid sphere of water surrounding the bison, which Appa was grateful for given the difficulty he had had seeing moments before, though he would have appreciated it if she had done so earlier.

Sasuke's lighting bolt coursed through Katara's membrane, the minerals in the rainwater providing a more efficient means of conduction than the empty air inside the bubble. It then continued its journey into the stormy skies unimpeded. The Uchiha nodded to his cohort, Suigetsu, who created his own water based attack to hurl at their prey. It struck the bubble, but it held.

"She's quite good!" Suigetsu remarked. "She could have probably been a great member of the Seven Swordsmen!"

Ty Lee tugged on the water nin's clothes. "If you can get me through that bubble, I can take care of her," she shouted.

Suigetsu nodded. "Alright. Let's try it." He hefted the acrobat onto his shoulder and leaped off the serpent Sasuke had summoned to assist them in their chase. As he reached the climax of his jump, he twirled his foot slightly, causing the rain drops to coalesce, and he used his ninja art of water walking to bound off of it, effectively allowing him to hop across the sky to Appa's liquid shell. Before landing on the bubble, Suigetsu liquified his body, wrapping himself around Ty Lee. He hit the wall of water, merging his cells with the flowing field and convulsing so that Ty Lee was ejected from his innards and onto the large bison saddle.

Ty Lee quickly recovered and shot toward Katara. She struck her in several pressure points, stopping her flow of internal energy and paralyzing her. Suigetsu, meanwhile, had reformed half his body while the other half still flowed in Katara's shell, stabilizing it. He created a variety of hand seals, summoning a water clone from the shell and siccing it on the gang of adventurers.

Sokka drew his club and swung at the shinobi. However, Suigetsu drew his head cleaving sword with frightening speed, and cut the club in two. Sokka stared at his weapon for a moment, face contorted with shock. Suigetsu used that moment to swing his blade again, hitting him across the head with the flat of his sword. Sokka flew into the sphere of water, and found himself tied in place by tentacles of liquid.

Aang almost instantly responded with a powerful blast of air, which blew the water clone away. The real Suigetsu responded by bringing the water shell slowly downward, forcing Appa to alter his course as the wall of liquid was impenetrable by him.

Ty Lee rushed toward Aang, brandishing her fingers dangerously. She struck at the boy, but he was far too quick to be caught now that he was fully aware of her. He dodged several strikes before pushing her back with a gust of air. He gestured to pull water out of their prison, but Suigetsu's will was now fused with the water, and he pulled it back, preventing Aang from using waterbending. Aang once again found himself dodging the acrobat's strikes.

Suigetsu summoned a water clone once more, taking Aang from the opposite side. The young airbender expertly used the tenants of airbending to dodge his multiple attackers. He even used Ty Lee's strikes against Suigetsu, pushing his back against the clone's front and dodging just before the acrobat could press his pressure points, instead jabbing the clone's.

"Oops," the girl said.

Appa was almost grounded, now. Aang couldn't let things go on as they were. He spun his staff about, swirling the air within the bubble into a small twister. At the same time he pulled on the water with his waterbending, combining the two arts into one. It took great concentration to do this, especially since he had not fully mastered waterbending as of yet. Sweat began to pour off his face, and he shouted a ki-ai, focusing his will on pulling the water into his twister.

"H-hey!" Suigetsu cried as he found his half-body being pulled toward the funnel of water that Aang was pulling. "Ty Lee! A little help!" The acrobat rushed toward the Avatar, but found herself blown away by the wind tunnel. Suigetsu tried to pull more water into the shell from the rain, but it had begun to die down. He couldn't pull quite enough to prevent the sphere from collapsing. He suddenly found himself being tossed about in some kind of... watornado! His musing on the subject ceased as his head collided with Sokka's, who had also been sucked into the funnel.

Aang swung his staff, dragging the water with him as he did. He made the water spit Sokka out onto Appa moments before he struck Ty Lee with the liquid club. He allowed his control of the wind and water to subside, and Suigetsu and Ty Lee flew through the air before slamming into the ground. However, Sasuke's snake was now upon them.

Aang brandished his staff menacingly as he stared into Sasuke's cold eyes. The Uchiha nodded toward Juugo, and the older shinobi leaped onto Appa's back. "You don't seem like the type who likes to hurt people," Aang said. "Why should we fight?"

"I'd rather we didn't," Juugo said. "Please come with me quietly. I don't want to have to hurt you, Master Avatar."

"I can't," Aang responded. "If I'm captured by the Fire Nation, there's no more hope for this world."

"Then I have no choice," Juugo said. The markings of his disease began to crawl across his face. He lunged and his arm shot out, now a huge, clawed thing. Aang dodged and struck with his staff.

- - -

Zuko ran up the trunk of the tree. He got almost halfway to the top this time before having to leap off. He landed roughly on the ground, but got up to try again.

"He's almost as tenacious as you, Naruto," Jiraiya said. "Not to mention talented. Given enough of the right training, he might even surpass General Iroh."

The scarred young man ascended the trunk once more, and this time he managed to outdo himself by five more steps before losing friction. "Graagh!" Zuko growled. "Why can't I get this?"

"You're doing great!" Naruto assured the Fire Prince. "You're getting the hang of it faster than I did."

"I still don't feel like I'm getting anywhere," Zuko protested. "Can't you just teach me some more advanced ninjutsu? Like the one Uncle used to spit a big fireball out of his mouth. Or your shadow clone technique!"

"You'll never be able to master the more advanced ninjutsu techniques without first mastering the basics," Jiraiya said. "You're getting ahead of yourself, and that will hold you back more than anything."

- - -

Appa streaked across the now clear sky as his partner battled the crazed shinobi on his back. Katara and Sokka were still unable to fight, Sokka being unconscious while Katara was paralyzed. However, Aang was skillful in his technique and was managing to hit Juugo far more than he was being hit.

"You bald brat!" Juugo roared, his face completely taken over by his marks as well as his chemically imbalanced mind. "I'll kill you! Kill you! _Kill _you!" He swung his huge arms at the Avatar, trying to cleave the flesh from him, but Aang grabbed hold of one of his arms and leaped up to kick the man in the face. He then followed up with a series of bicycle kicks to Juugo's head. He then leaped back and blew the dazed fighter away with a bullet of wind.

Below Appa, Sasuke caught Juugo's body as he continued pursuit of the Avatar. The crazed shinobi flailed for a moment, but the Uchiha glared at him with his sharingan. "Calm down, Juugo," he said. The young man responded, his marks retreating as his mind returned to normalcy.

"Those guys are getting on my nerves," Toph stated from Sasuke's side. "I'm useless while they're flying so high up like that. Even with the second stage of the gaia seal, I'm not good enough to sense them up there."

"Don't fret, Toph," Sasuke responded. "They're falling into our trap. We've been routing them toward the Grass Province for awhile now. One of Lord Orochimaru's bases is there, and it is there we will have them."

- - -

Zuko's training was suddenly interrupted when a metal tank rumbled into view. "Not again!" Zuko growled. "How do they keep finding us so quickly?"

"I'm not sure," Naruto said, "But let's get out of here!" He summoned a toad about the size of the Avatar's air bison and the three men climbed on. The toad leaped into the air, carrying them away from the tank at great speed.

Inside the tank, Azula smirked. "This is perfect," she said. "It's like they're intentionally heading right for the Grass Province." She frowned. "It's almost as if someone told them..." She glanced over to Mai and then to Karin.

"Don't look at me!" Karin protested. "I would never give sensitive information to an enemy. Lord Orochimaru trained me better than that."

"Why would I care?" Mai said.

Azula scoffed. She was still bothered by it, but it was working in her favor, regardless. However, she would have to keep a closer eye out for signs of Mai or Karin's betrayal. "Zuko"s disappearance from the barn he had been tied up in was suspicious enough.

- - -

The next day, in the Grass Province, Zuko and Naruto flopped to the ground. Jiraiya chuckled. "What, you kids tired already?"

"We've been dodging those crazy girls all night," Naruto said. "Of course we're tired."

Jiraiya laughed. "You know, one of a ninja's key advantages is the ability to remain awake and fully alert for days without tiring." He shook his head. "It's a simple matter of modifying the flow of your chakras."

"Yap, yap, yap," Zuko grumbled. "You... you talk more than..." His eyes became glazed.

"What happened to General Iroh anyway?" Jiraiya asked after a moment of silence. "I'd... heard that he was traveling with you."

Zuko frowned. "I couldn't protect him. I tried, but... that... guy!" He beat the ground with his fist. "He killed him! He took his head off with one clean swipe!" Tears shimmered in the prince's eyes.

"What?" Naruto asked, stunned. "No... Sasuke wouldn't..."

"He did," Zuko said coldly. "I saw it with my own eyes. That's why I need to find him... to avenge Uncle's death."

Jiraiya sighed. "I... was afraid of this." He turned to Naruto. "You see what I meant before we left? It seems Sasuke has gone down a path from which he may never return."

"No," Naruto said. "He... was my comrade. My best friend. I can't believe he would have just murdered someone in cold blood. And even if he did..." he turned to Zuko. "Listen... even if he did kill your uncle, there's still good in him. I know it. You can't just kill him."

Zuko glared at Naruto. "I can't? I think I can. He killed my uncle. The man who's been more like a father to me than my own father. The only person who's really been there for me since I lost my mother when I was seven."

Naruto sighed. "I... I understand, but..." he paused. "Wait, you lost your mother when you were seven?"

"Yes!" Zuko growled.

"And you're sixteen now, right?"

"What's your point?"

"And... your mom was the wife of the Fire Lord?"

Zuko sighed. "That's why I'm called the crown prince, stupid."

"Right, right," Naruto said. "But your dad hasn't been... remarried since then, has he?"

"No," Zuko said. "What are you getting at?"

Naruto stroked his chin, trying to remember an event from three years ago.

- - -

The young Naruto and his team looked at the stocky woman cuddling her until now missing cat into submission. "Good little kitty-kitty," she was cooing. "I was so worried about you I could have died!" Naruto didn't know how the dumb cat could put up with such a doting owner, but he wished it good health. However, he was still disappointed with this mission. Granted, he was still a beginner, but he had thought there would be a little more excitement when old man Hokage had told them they had an assignment from the wife of the Fire Lord, whom they were to refer to as Lady Shijimi.

- - -

The blond ninja turned to look at the prince. "Zuko!" he said. "Your mother..."

"What?" Zuko asked. "Do you... know something about her?"

"Was she kind of fat?"

Zuko was, to say the least, taken aback. "Why you..." Flames danced from the boy's hands as he prepared to strike the younger man down for his insolence.

"You two might want to cool your heels for a second," Jiraiya said. "We have company again."

The tank that had been following them had just come into view. Inside the tank, the three dangerous ladies stretched as they awoke from their naps. They had fallen asleep hours ago, telling the drivers of the tank to wake them when they got into Grass Province. Now they were there, and they were ready to do some real damage.

They mounted their lizards and exited the tank, utilizing the creatures' great speed to attempt overtaking the three shinobi.

Meanwhile, on the edge of the Grass Province, Aang and company were making there way through the forest slowly. They hadn't been bothered by Sasuke since yesterday, and were now enjoying a bit of the scenery on foot. Appa was still a bit sore from the chase, anyway.

"When we get to the next town, I need to get a new weapon," Sokka said. "I still can't believe that human puddle broke my poor club!"

Aang nodded. "Yeah... it seems a bit overkill having five people on our tail. I kind of wish we'd run into Itachi and Kisame again."

"I don't know about that," Katara said. "I mean... they're wanted criminals... and even Itachi's brother wants to kill him."

"Well, technically," Sokka intervened. "They're wanted by the Fire Nation. Who, I might add, are after us, too. And Itachi's little brother doesn't exactly seem... well hinged."

"Regardless, Itachi seems like he has good intentions," Aang said. "In fact, he reminds me of one of my friends from the Uchiha clan one hundred years ago."

"Really?" Katara asked. "You don't talk too much about your friends, Aang. It would be interesting to hear a bit about them."

"Yeah," Aang said. "It's kind of hard to believe that most of them are probably dead. After all, not all of my friends would be likely to live to Bumi's age. But I had a group of friends I would hang out with in the Fire Nation. I met the three of them before I even became a master. Kuzon was the son of a Fire Sage and his best friend was from the Uchiha clan. His name was Izuna, and he had an older brother who would sometimes show us cool tricks, too."

"That sounds sweet," Katara said. "So, what—"

Katara was interrupted when a flurry of fireballs surrounded the young travelers. Stone erupted from the ground, encasing the three travelers' feet, as well as Appa's. Momo screeched and launched himself into the trees, causing someone to yelp and fall out of the canopy. It was Suigetsu, and the flying lemur was scratching at his face furiously. "Cheeky little monkey!" he cried, tearing the animal off of himself. "I did _not_ sign up for this. Better not have given me rabies..."

Aang, meanwhile, had focused his will on the rocks, and removed them via earthbending. He then gestured theatrically toward each of his friends, freeing their feet as well. He proceeded to blast the water ninja into a tree with a gust of wind, causing Momo to be freed of his irate captor. The friends tried to escape to their left, but walls of rock ripped from the soil, upturning trees and blocking their path. Toph stood atop one of the walls, already half transformed into her level two form. Aang decided they would run the other way.

Appa took the children and Momo upon his back and lifted off, bellowing greatly as he went. He dodged several stone throws and fire balls, and he quickly cleared the forest and entered the vast grasslands of Grass Province.

Sasuke and his team rushed quickly after them on foot. "They're heading right toward the base, now," he said. "It won't be long before we have them."

- - -

Naruto's toad leaped around the azure flames that jet from their pursuer's fingers. The knives were a bit more difficult to dodge, but Jiraiya was quite easily able to deflect them, and the toad's tongue was apparently quite useful in this regard as well.

Suddenly, Azula found herself knocked off her lizard. She hit the ground with a whump, and took a moment to recover. Her two partners reigned in their steeds, turning about to see what had become of their leader. Standing over the princess was a man garbed in a black robe with red clouds decorating it. His head was shrouded by a hat with dangling chimes.

A pang of fear shot through Azula as she saw the man's eyes through the shadows. They seemed almost like glowing rubies. "It's... you!" she said shakily. It was the man who had plagued her dreams. The only man who had ever shown her true horror. She backed away. "Wh-what are you going to do to me?" she asked, tears threatening to pour down her cheeks. But she wouldn't cry. She wasn't weak like her brother. She would never cry.

"I'm not here for you," Itachi said. He removed his hat and turned to gaze at the blond shinobi, who had turned his own steed about, curious as to what had halted his pursuers. His master had protested that such a thing was foolish and they should make their escape while they could, but some things never changed. The Uchiha stepped calmly forward.

"Don't look into his eyes, Naruto!" Jiraiya shouted. He covered the boy's eyes and spurred the toad away. However, Itachi leaped in front of the toad faster than it could tense its leg muscles. He touched his hand to the toad's head and it fell into a deep sleep. "Damn!" the toad sage cursed as he gathered up both boys and leaped back, setting the three directly between Azula and her girls and Itachi.

"Don't take this personally, young Naruto," Itachi said smoothly. "It's my mission to capture the jinchuuriki of the nine tailed fox.

"Is that right?" Karin asked. "Well, coincidentally, it's our mission to capture the prince, here."

"Are you suggesting... an alliance?" Itachi inquired of the red haired woman.

Karin opened her mouth to answer, but Azula rose suddenly to her feet, eyes wild as she snarled, "Never!" Her fingers traced an arc through the air, electricity crackling behind them. She fired a bolt at Itachi, and it struck with deadly accuracy and great power. His body literally burst apart in a great fireball.

"That's unfortunate," Itachi said from behind her. He placed his hand on her shoulder and looked slyly into her eyes as she turned her head. "You seem like such a sweet girl." She struck at him, and his head bobbed to the side. Her nails scraped his cheek, leaving a tiny trail of blood. "And so athletic, too. My foolish little brother does have good taste, it seems."

"Shut up!" Azula arched her flames into a broad whip which forced the older Uchiha brother back. She built the heat and force of her flames to a climax and exploded at Itachi. The rogue shinobi's hands were blurs as they created a hand seal for the fire ball technique. He breathed out his bright yellow flames which crashed into Azula's blue. The force behind the attacks canceled each other out and simply left a large scorch in the grass.

Azula didn't give up her offense. She shot lightning through the smoke in the vicinity Itachi had been. The Uchiha, however, had wisely vacated the area and was dashing directly toward Naruto, having decided that the princess was far too distracting.

Jiraiya intercepted the Uchiha, and he struck with a rasengan that Itachi barely avoided. The Sannin was far too close to Itachi's own skills to fight fair. He activated his mangekyo and overtook the toad sage's perceptions. In the space of a fraction of a second, the sage experienced two days of being beaten at the hands of his old teammate, Tsunade. The old man collapsed, wheezing and spitting bile, onto the ground and the Uchiha leaped over his body.

Naruto suddenly popped into view, a large rasengan being dragged behind him. This attack was far bigger than Jiraiya's or any rasengan he'd seen before. He would surely be gravely injured if allowed to hit him. His mangekyo sharingan was still active, however, and he pressed his will onto the boy, causing him a moment's pause. It was only a moment, but it allowed him the time to dodge, barely, the powerful attack. His cloak was ripped at the shoulder, but he was unharmed.

Naruto, however, was left seeing Itachi exploding into hundreds of crows. He was fully entranced by the illusion. Itachi was about to take advantage of this when Zuko suddenly intervened, his broadswords whipping perilously close to the Uchiha's neck. Itachi drew his own sword and fought back. He quickly saw through the boy's pattern and broke it, eventually disarming him.

Before the Uchiha could press his advantage on Zuko, several knives shot through the air. Itachi dodged them, but he found himself being attacked by Naruto clones. Jiraiya had apparently recovered enough to break the boy out of his genjutsu. Itachi countered the clones' attacks and struck back, causing them to vanish. He then located the actual Naruto and lunged for him. However, before he could reach his target, Azula interfered, blasting him with myriad fire balls.

The Uchiha recovered from the fiery blasts and proceeded to defend himself against the merciless onslaught of the Fire Princess. She was cold and precise in her technique, but he could sense an edge to her attack. She was being driven more by emotion than she wanted to let on. He used that against her, feinting a firebending attack, then quickly shifting to a sword swipe as she moved to counter. She drew back from the blade, fearful that he would lop her arm off. He could easily overtake her and do just that, but he planned to stop just short and use his momentum to knock her out with the hilt of his sword.

Zuko's blade, however, stopped his sword before he could get close enough to pull off his feint. The prince had apparently recovered the dual swords, and was now using them with all the finesse of clubs, battering him back from the girl.

Azula shuddered as her brother fought off the beast. Her mind couldn't help but recall the vision with which the Uchiha had cursed her. The life she led in the space of a few seconds, but which at times seemed more real that reality. She recalled the tenderness with which that life's Zuko had treated her, even though everyone else despised her weakness. She also remembered how he had taken everyone away from her... even himself. But that was just a dream, she reminded herself.

Itachi countered a kick from behind—Naruto, again—as he parried Zuko's strikes. At the same time Karin decided to attempt a little taijutsu combat. He kicked her in the stomach and hook kicked her face, sending her reeling. He then reached through Zuko's defenses, grabbing his clothing at the gut and lifting him over his head. He threw him into Naruto, who was recovering for another attack, and turned to face Mai, who was now tossing blades at him with furious speed.

Jiraiya joined the fray in his usual theatrical manner, blowing smoke and flames up Itachi's cloak. "Naruto! Zuko! Get out of here, quick! I'll hold them off!"

"What? That's insane!" Naruto admonished.

The hermit summoned a large toad and it joined him in attacking the Uchiha. "Just trust me... get out of here!"

Zuko pulled on Naruto's sleeve. "He's right. It's us they're after." The blond ninja acquiesced and followed the young man. They confiscated Mai and Karin's lizards and rode off on them.

Azula snarled. "They're not getting away!" she said. "Karin! Mai! You two keep this Uchiha off my back. I'm going after Zuko!" She dashed to her lizard and rode after the two boys while her partners joined Jiraiya's assault on Itachi.

Not far away, Appa landed on a small hill. It overlooked a dusty town. "Maybe..." the Avatar said. "Maybe we can find some shelter here. I'm sure those guys wouldn't attack us in a city in broad daylight."

"Well, they are ninja, you know," Sokka countered. "They could stab you in the back while looking you right in the eye and you wouldn't know it until you were dead."

"That doesn't make much sense, Sokka," his sister said. "Besides... that place looks deserted. Are you sure it's not abandoned?"

"Not really," Aang said. "Listen, I'll go check it out real quick. Stay here with Appa, okay? I'll be back in two minutes." He unsheathed his glider and launched into the air. As the two Water Tribe siblings looked on, they suddenly felt the prickling of danger in the air.

Sokka turned, drawing his boomarang. "Who's...?" He began, but he was quickly silenced as a stone slammed into his chest. Katara dodged a blast of water from Suigetsu, and twisted it around her to counter attack. A stream of flame from Sasuke, however, vaporized the water.

"So... Aang has gone into the ghost town?" Sasuke asked the siblings.

"Wh-what do you care?" Katara snarled.

"It's dangerous in there," Sasuke said. "Quite a few... 'ghosts' that won't like someone gliding into their territory like that."

Aang landed in the town, looking about curiously. Indeed, there wasn't a sign of anyone in the area. Suddenly, he heard the faintest whistle coming from behind. His training took over and he evaded the strike from a twirling kunai, which embedded itself in the door of a building beyond. _Shinobi_, Aang realized. He had been chased into a trap, but at least his friends weren't caught.

The airbender crouched, ready to spring away at the first sign of a projectile. "Alright, ninja, come and get me!"

Katara and Sokka fought the five man squad back with all their strength and skill. Or, rather, Sokka flailed wildly with his club at Ty Lee and Juugo, who deftly dodged his attacks, while Katara engaged Sasuke, Toph, and Suigetsu in a stare-down.

"I don't have time to waste with you, miss," Sasuke said. "I'm going to take the Avatar, personally, and then my brother will come to me... and I'll kill him."

"Go on, then, Sparky," Toph said, "Me and Chomper are more than enough for the Sugar Queen."

"What did you just call me?" Katara asked in a perturbed manner.

Sasuke leaped over Katara's head, and while she attempted to stop him with a tendril of water, Suigetsu intercepted the attack while Toph hit her hard in the shin with an earthy attack. The Uchiha sped down the hill at a vertigo inducing clip, seeing dust rise violently above the town as the young Avatar engaged his trap.

In the deserted city, Aang found himself dodging and deflecting hundreds of projectiles. A few gale force blasts to his surroundings quickly dispatched much of his attackers' convenient cover, and he found himself engaging several sound ninja up close. The ninja were skilled, but Aang was a master and he managed to dispatch many of them with only a few close calls. However, he was sufficiently bloodied by the time his major threat appeared. The sound ninja in charge of pursuing him stepped onto the scene with only ten sound shinobi left standing, but he didn't appear perturbed.

"You've done exceptionally, Avatar," Sasuke praised the boy. "But I'm afraid you're too weak to take me on. You're already winded." Sasuke drew his blade. "Only the Avatar State could save you, and as you're separated from your friends, I don't think you'll have the motivation necessary to enter it."

"I don't want to enter the Avatar State," Aang retorted. "I'm enough to beat you on my own. I'll never give in to the Fire Nation or anyone who works for them!"

"So idealistic," Sasuke said. "It vaguely reminds me of someone..."

Suddenly, flames engulfed the shinobi. He cried out as he fell to the ground, his robe still smoldering and his skin scorched. "Sasuke!!" a voice familiar to Aang shouted in a tone doubly familiar. However, he was more used to seething anger in that voice being directed toward him.

The shinobi rolled to his feet, his eyes darting to the sound of the voice. He hadn't expected any interruptions. However, here he was. That young man he and Azula had left in the harbor before they had gathered their team. Prince Zuko. He was back already, and he looked out for blood. "I didn't realize you'd have such bad timing." He saw over the prince's shoulder as the young man stepped into the dusty main street. There was a familiar blond with him.

"Zuko?" Aang asked, confused. His former pursuer looked a bit different. He was leaner, and missing the queue, while he had also let some short hair grow in. But he still had that familiar homicidal gleam in his eye. The airbender was just happy it wasn't directed at him for a change.

"I'm not interested in you right now," Zuko growled at the boy. "Get out of here and leave him to me!"

"Hey, wait a sec!" Naruto said. "I've been searching for Sasuke longer than you. I have first dibs!"

"It has been a long time... Naruto," Sasuke said. "But make no mistake; I didn't kill you last time on a whim. I have no bonds with you, and, on a whim, I would take your life happily. However, I really don't have time to deal with your idiocy, dunce." He signaled to the ninja. "Keep them busy."

The sound ninja converged on the two travelers and they engaged. At the same time, Sasuke advanced on Aang, sharingan at the ready. However, Aang proved again to be adept at evasion, and his swift dodging proved a frustrating obstacle to Sasuke. However, he was resolute. He knew now that his illusions wouldn't work on an Avatar, but he still had his many ninjutsu compliments of the snake ninja. He summoned a few snakes to distract the airbender, and then struck with yellow flames using the firebending techniques he had picked up from watching Azula fight.

Meanwhile, Naruto and Zuko fought against the ten ninja bravely, but were losing ground. These weren't just tender footed genin, they had to be at least high level chuunin. "We're really getting our butts handed to us," Naruto observed as he deflected an oncoming punch, only to be dizzied by the high frequency sound wave coming from the sound ninja's bracers.

"Yeah," Zuko admitted, before finding one of his broadswords kicked out of his hand. "Hog feathers!" he growled, switching to a single blade style to fend off the ninja he was fighting.

One of the ninja got rather excited that the ten of them—though it was actually seven, now, as three of their number had been knocked out by chance—were taking so long beating two novices, and he decided to pull out his big guns. "Alright, get out of my way!" he shouted. "Time for my special technique!"

"Wait, we're not supposed to—" one of his comrades started, but another cut him off and pulled him away from the action.

"Lord Sasuke only said we weren't supposed to use lethal techniques on the Avatar or his friends. He never said anything about these guys."

The ninja who had shouted tossed off his shirt and three orifices opened up in his torso, one at the collar bone and two on his back. His stomach and ribs expanded and his face turned red. It looked as if he was holding his breath. When he had puffed up to a ridiculous size, an incredibly loud, deep sound emanated from the collar orifice. The sound hit the two travelers like an avalanche, and they found themselves launched half a mile through what would have been buildings if the sound cannon hadn't blown them out of their way, first.

The two young men struggled to sit up. Their hearing wasn't too great at the moment, so as the sound ninja discussed their fates, they didn't quite know what was being said. Blood was pouring out of their ears, noses, and mouths, but the struggled to their knees.

"What d'ya know?" one of the ninja commented. "It didn't kill them in the first hit. They must have a lot of stamina."

"Doesn't matter," another said. "They won't be fighting for awhile in that condition."

"N-no," Naruto said as he stood shakily.

"We're not going to give up without a fight," Zuko challenged them.

"This is impossible!" The attacking shinobi growled. "No one can stand after an attack like that, let alone live!" He began puffing himself up again. "Well, I'll kill you once and for all, this time."

"That won't happen," A black cloaked figure suddenly stood between the two travelers and the seven shinobi. "I was a bit late using La, last time, but this time I won't hesitate to use Agni to silence you mewling mutants." Suddenly the attacking shinobi burst into a black flame which, as if it had a mind of its own, jumped to the other six ninja of Sound. It was only seconds before their bodies were burned to the core, and they remained still. However, the flames would burn until they were nothing but unidentifiable dust.

"I-Itachi..." Naruto stammered, cold fear chilling him. He had saved them, but that was most likely only so the Akatsuki could take the ninetails out of him, which would leave him just as dead.

The stony assassin turned toward them and opened his mouth as if to say something to them, but then his left arm shot up, two fingers extended, and he caught a bolt of lightning. His right hand pointed the other way into the sky, and the electricity traveled out his fingertips and into the atmosphere.

"Iiiitachiii..." Azula's voice came from the top of one of the few buildings still standing. "Come out and play!"


	10. Impasse

**Elements of War**

**Chapter 09  
Impasse  
**

The Avatar disengaged from the crimson eyed shinobi after they heard the roar of Azula's lightning. He turned to see a familiar black cloaked ninja facing the princess. Behind them, his old enemy, Zuko, and the unknown blond stood shakily, looking as if they were unsure of whether to attack his friend or run.

Aang decided to take the decision out of their hands. Taking advantage of Sasuke's distracted state upon seeing his detested older brother, the airbender shot toward Zuko and Naruto, wind whipping about his limbs with dangerous speed. "Back off, Zuko!" he shouted, kicking at the banished prince with gale force gusts.

"You back off," Naruto countered, defending his fallen fellow traveler. He gave the airbender a right cross, but Aang shifted his head back, dodging the blow. He then exchanged a swift set of punches with the older boy. Naruto circled around his punches so easily, but he wasn't a master of airbending for nothing. He could see the pattern behind the ninja's dodges, and simply feinted to the right to bring the boy right in the way of his right hurricane punch.

"The way you dodge…" Aang commented as Naruto rolled across the ground. "It reminds me of an air—" He was cut off as an angry shout and a wave of hot flame washed over him. He bent the current of wind around him, deflecting the flames, but he felt his skin prickle painfully with the heat of it.

Zuko charged Aang, his double bladed swords drawn. He may have sworn vengeance against Sasuke, and he may be regarded as a traitor to his nation, but this was the Avatar. If he happened to capture him in the course of accomplishing his main objective, who was to say his father wouldn't welcome him back as a hero. Besides, the rotten brat had kicked him in the face before he even attacked him. That was just uncalled for! However, he quickly found his face embedded in a black cloaked elbow, as the older Uchiha clothes lined him as an afterthought before facing his sister, who was now leaping to engage the red eyed demon.

Itachi caught Azula's wrist and flipped her about. She grasped his wrists herself, and as she landed feet first, bent backward, she shot her right foot over her left and twisted Itachi about. The Akatsuki member adjusted his stance, catching himself before losing balance. The princess's foot blossomed with cerulean light as it advanced on him, but he twisted his spine in a most unhealthy manner, dodging the flame that would have otherwise burned the flesh from his face.

Azula, however, quickly recoiled her foot and struck bluntly at Itachi's weight bearing leg, which toppled him. She moved forward to deliver a decisive blow to the falling figure, but his hands had already formed a pattern for a ninja technique which caused his body to become engulfed in flames. The princess flipped backward from the flaming Uchiha, declaring, "Hey! No fair lighting yourself on fire!"

Sasuke watched the exchange with morbid fascination. Azula wouldn't be able to beat his brother. She might be a fair match for him physically and mentally, but Itachi's sharingan eye tipped the balance in his favor. Only countering with the same eyes could balance the stage. His feet began to subconsciously draw him toward the conflict.

He had been waiting a long time for this. He would kill his brother this time. He wouldn't allow any more distractions.

Sasuke's sword crossed Zuko's centimeters before the broadsword cleaved his head. The Uchiha delivered a swift sidekick to the scarred exile. "Don't distract me," he said coldly. "Even with your hatred, you're too weak." He continued forward. "Come back for me when you've destroyed everything you hold dear."

"It's too late for that!" Zuko snarled, his memories of his uncle's beheading flashing through his mind. "You've done that for me!" He charged the Uchiha again, this time wary of his opponent's skill. The young man was honorable enough this time to look him in the eyes as he attacked him. Those damned eyes, as red as the day he'd killed the only man who'd been for him through his banishment.

Zuko's blades danced off Sasuke's with savage grace, both skillful and enraged at the same time, while the shinobi merely parried and blocked each drive with that annoying passively arrogant look his sister always graced him with when they sparred in the past. His anger drove him onward, through the pain and vertigo of the dispatched sound ninja's attack.

Finally, he broke down Sasuke's defense and delivered a quick, fatal thrust through the young man's chest. Zuko froze as he saw the shinobi's face grow pale and his gold eyes glaze over. The prince's body was slow to relax, and his emotions changed from hot anger to tense disbelief. The other man tried to speak, a strangled "N… nne" escaping his lips, blood flecking his chin. Zuko acted instantly, his offhand blade slashing through the man's throat, severing his carotid artery. He moved back as the blood began to spurt from the wound.

Sasuke's face began to sag, as if he had been an inflated balloon, and now the breath of life had been released, collapsing his body. Then his wrinkling face expanded and reformed. As the body fell to its back, Zuko looked in horror as Sasuke became the perfect image of the retired general, Iroh. "Uncle…" he wheezed. "Uncle!"

"How unfortunate," Sasuke said from behind him. "I had thought I could reunite you with your poor uncle, and now you've gone and killed him."

"N-no!" Zuko growled. "It's a lie… that was… you!"

"But I'm right here," Sasuke explained calmly. "And your uncle is right there. Dead."

"You killed him!" Zuko shouted angrily.

"No, I didn't," Sasuke said. "I captured him and let you believe I had killed him. But then I thought perhaps he would be a good puppet for capturing you. So I gave him my features and sent him here to retrieve you. It's unfortunate that you were so rash…"

"You're… you're a monster!" Zuko howled as he spun his blades about, advancing on his foe. He was stopped suddenly, however, when a bright flash of light and a loud roar passed inches from his head. He felt like hot pins were piercing every part of his body, and his stomach turned sour.

Itachi lowered his smoking fingers. He had redirected another lightning strike from Azula, but this time he had decided to kill two birds with one stone, in a strictly metaphorical sense. He saw that the electric pulse from the close lightning strike had disrupted Zuko's flow of energy enough to snap him out of the illusion technique his little brother had put him under.

Speaking of his little brother, he was heading in Itachi's direction. Itachi realized fighting the Fire Nation princess and Sasuke from either side would be a bit much, even for him. "Azula! Back off, he's mine."

Azula hesitated momentarily. "... W-wait, I have a score to settle, too!"

"If you interfere with my vengeance, I'll kill you," he said, shooting a hard glare at her momentarily, striking a chill down her spine.

Itachi weaved to the side of Sasuke's sword swipe, the tip drawing a shallow line across his cheek. He grabbed his little brother by the back of the hair and pushed him down, extending his other hand out and catching Zuko's blade in his hand. "Foolish little brother," he quipped. He kicked Sasuke back and pushed Zuko away.

Naruto and Aang, meanwhile, had disengaged, heaving from the exertion of their fight. Naruto had yet to land a truly solid punch on the airbender while he had been getting knocked around quite thoroughly. However, his stamina was greater than Aang's, and he was already recovering while he could see that the Avatar was still panting. He glanced over and saw Sasuke kneeling on the ground with Itachi in Zuko's face behind him.

While Aang noticed this shift in attention, when he attacked, all he met was empty air as Naruto bolted away from him. Aang followed in hot pursuit, seeing that he was going toward Itachi.

Azula also spotted Naruto coming right toward her and Sasuke. She leaped out and kicked his arm as it struck toward her, and then she punished him with a barrage of fiery fists to the gut. Sasuke, meanwhile got to his feet, his eyes piqued with annoyance. As he moved to incapacitate his nuisance of a former ally, Aang intercepted, not being one to allow even an enemy to be ambushed.

Itachi disarmed Zuko quickly, and they exchanged blows, Zuko's fists blazing with flame while the older Uchiha merely moved his strikes out of the way with a hand. His casual attitude seemed to enrage the prince more. "Why don't you fight me for real?"

"Rage blinds you," Itachi said. "Your moves are unfocused and easy to dismiss, though they are powerful." He grabbed Zuko's hand and twisted underneath his arm, bringing the boy's hand up to his ribs in an imitation of a chicken wing. He twisted up on the wrist, causing the prince to grunt in paint. "You lack hate. Hatred... is cold and focused. That is what gives your sister her power."

"I'm... not my... sister," Zuko protested.

"Shall I tell you whom it is she hates most of all?" Itachi asked. "Shall I tell you who gives her all that strength?"

The prince scoffed. "I don't really care. That's her business."

"She hates you, Prince Zuko," Itachi said. "She hates you because you are loved while she is feared."

Zuko stopped struggling and took a deep breath. "What... what are you, some kind of ninja family counselor?"

Azula raked her nails across Naruto's face, causing him to stumble backward. She pressed her attack, sapphire flames dancing from her limbs, but Naruto wasn't as brash as he was when he was young. He leaped into a dilapidated building, forcing her to pursue him. The foxy boy barreled through the building, leading Azula through several hazards—which she was clever and perceptive enough to avoid—while attacking her from a distance with wind enhanced shuriken.

Sasuke, meanwhile, fought blade to staff against the Avatar. The fight was as expected from their last encounter. The Avatar was much faster than he, and he was forced to strain his sharingan eyes to predict his blows in time to counter. His genjutsu wouldn't help as the boy had proven the ability to break illusions, and it would be doubly ineffective in such close quarters combat.

When the Uchiha tried to make a thrust for Aang's shoulder, the boy's swift response disarmed Sasuke, and he found himself being blown away from his sword by a powerful gust. The Avatar then tossed away his weapon and stood between the shinobi and his sword. "If you want it, you'll have to come through me."

"No problem," Sasuke said. "You may be faster than me, but you're still predictable." He charged the boy. The Avatar was still an airbender at heart, and he could not simply stand there to be knocked over. It wasn't in his nature. Even if he had learned some waterbending techniques, at best he might simply toss Sasuke, and the shinobi was prepared in that eventuality.

Aang stomped into a horse stance, and a boulder ripped out of the earth. He struck the stone and it hurtled toward Sasuke. In shock, the shinobi rolled to the side. He had not expected the boy to have learned earthbending.

"How…?" he asked.

The Avatar didn't respond, but instead moved his arms to the side, creating a wave of earth that surrounded and overwhelmed the young man. He burst from the dirt a moment later and belted a series of conflagrations, around which the boy slithered before leaping to engage the ninja hand to hand.

Itachi brought the Fire Nation prince to his knees with a knee to the gut. He lowered himself to his own right knee and grasped Zuko's chin in a potent grasp. He forced the young man to look into his eyes. "Your uncle…" he began.

Zuko spat angrily at Itachi. "Don't mention my uncle. Trash like you isn't worthy!"

The Uchiha ignored Zuko's defiance and continued. "He's alive, Zuko. He's waiting for you in the Fire Nation."

"What?" Zuko asked incredulously. "He's… alive…"

"My brother cast an illusion on you to make you believe he had killed your uncle. He ensured that you would come after him, and thus would be all the easier to capture," Itachi explained. "But he has escaped from his captors and is now in hiding in the Fire Nation."

"How… how do you know this?" Zuko asked, still skeptical.

The Uchiha released the prince. "I am a shinobi," he said. "I know many things."

"You think I'll accept that?" Zuko asked. "I know about you. You're a part of a criminal organization!"

Itachi smirked at that. "You are a criminal and a traitor to your nation. How different are we?"

"I never killed my family," Zuko retorted.

"You may have to," Itachi responded. "They want to kill you."

Naruto, meanwhile had been caught by the distressing damsel in red. She had blown him out of the front of a building and was now punishing him with a furious barrage of azure missiles. Out in the open and dazed, the shinobi had little recourse. His only long range techniques were airbending, and the princess was rather good at defending his amateur air blasts.

The Fire Princess was rather perturbed, however, that no matter how many of her blasts struck the ninja would not go down. In fact, it almost seemed as if his burns were healing right in front of her eyes, but perhaps that was just a trick of the light and smoke. The blond was male, so would naturally have more stamina... though that hadn't helped any of her other opponents.

Naruto broke free of the firestorm and created more clones. They shielded him as he attempted to blitz toward the princess. He attacked with shuriken along the way, forcing the girl to defend, leaping and flipping about like her acrobatic friend.

Naruto's clones converged on Azula, a few gathering around Naruto as a spinning sphere of raw force coalesced in his hands. The bubble grew larger and larger until it had become the size of a kickball. Naruto's cadre of clones closed the gap between themselves and Azula, striking at her.

Azula was agile and ruthless in her dispatching of the weaker shadow clones. Sharp claws raked at them, blazing fire scorched them, and the sickening sound of crackling bone barked in the dry air as she twisted their limbs in unnatural directions. She finished off the last one just in time to turn to see the true Naruto barreling toward her, his arm outstretched and swirling chakra energy flying centimeters from his palm.

The shinobi gasped as the girl's hands grasped the wrist of his striking arm. She spun underneath his arm, twisting it around and driving his hand into his ribcage. The oudama rasengan dug into his side, and he grunted in pain as he felt one o his ribs snap.

Azula threw the young man to the ground, and he rolled across the dirt. She fired fierce fuchsia flashes of flame after the foxy fellow. Explosions rocked Naruto as he rolled to his knees, and then he saw the princess leap into the air, her entire body twisting and thrusting into a strike with all the force and heat of a volcanic eruption.

Azula, sweating profusely from the exertion, waited for the smoke to clear, attentive for any movement as she panted heavily. The dark soot began to clear in the air, and she could see a red glow within. The shinobi crouched within the glow, his skin burned and clothes in tatters. However, before her eyes, it seemed as if his burns were healing, leaving fresh, healthy skin. And... Were those fangs?

"Who interrupts a guy in the middle of his finishing move?" the shinobi complained as he stood. His demon fox cloak had enveloped him just in time, and he could already feel his strength increasing, even as he could see his opponent's was beginning to wane. He began to walk toward her, a lopsided grin on his face. "Alright... you ready for the final round?"

Not far away, Sasuke's body was covered in the marks of the heaven's seal. His curse powered speed had allowed him to punish the Avatar, but Aang's skills were quite good, as well. He was bruised and bleeding, finding himself on the receiving end of a strike more often than he'd like.

Aang eventually put some distance between him and the ninja. He maneuvered himself toward his discarded staff and unsheathed its glider. He leaped over Sasuke's head and airbended himself high into the air.

Sasuke leaped at the Avatar, but a strong gust from Aang's lungs blew him back. He snarled and began to run along the ground. He shot fireballs from his fingers, forcing Aang to zig zag over the rooftops.

Azula dodged Naruto's attack, but found herself tossed aside by his red aura, as if it had a mind of its own. She launched attack after attack, but he shrugged them off, unaffected by the heat, and barely slowed by the kinetic force. The young princess began to feel panic tighten in her gut. This guy could not be human.

Aang swooped over Azula and Naruto, still focused on dodging Sasuke's attacks. The fire princess spotted him and flipped into the air, landing on the Avatar's back. She jerked his shoulders askew, steering him away from the demon container.

As Sasuke passed nearby Naruto, meanwhile, the shinobi shot his arm out. His former teammate saw this and veered away, but the whip of the fox's chakra arm caught him on the neck, clothes lining him into the ground. Naruto looked down at Sasuke, his single chakra tail twitching as more energy bubbled around the base of the tail, growing in to a second.

"We didn't finish before," he said.

The Uchiha looked over his former friend, panting heavily. However, his curse mark was also growing, darkening his whole skin. "You're right."

Azula leaped off Aang as he began to spin about, and she landed roughly on the ground. Shaking her head, she turned about to see Zuko and Itachi nearby. They didn't seem to be fighting, but instead were having a conversation, heated from Zuko's end, but calm and patient from the eldest Uchiha's.

The princess forgot about the Avatar for the moment. She still had a score to settle with Itachi. She leaped for him, fingers blazing. The two young men noticed her approach, and faced her shoulder to shoulder.

Naruto crossed arms with Sasuke, and their limbs blurred with demonic speed. The fox cloak, Sasuke found, was still hard to predict, it acting as an extra pair of arms against which his two were too occupied to defend. Therefore, after a few jarring attacks, the Uchiha sprouted his hand shaped wings, using them to act as an extra pair of shield arms.

The fox ninja still tore into the other shinobi with ferocity, but Sasuke was fighting back. Electricity coursed through the snake apprentice's body in a defensive maneuver. Naruto fell back slightly, and Uchiha went on the offensive, using his wide array of fire and snake jutsu.

Aang glided back toward the fighting ninja and dove at Sasuke from behind. He struck the winged boy in the neck, knocking him off balance. He rolled along the ground and came back up to his knees to see Naruto and Aang ganging up on him.

_I might be able to handle one or the other,_ he thought, _but both would certainly destroy me like this._ He looked into Naruto's fox eyes. His sharingan bore into the boy's spirit. There, he saw Naruto's soul encased in the nine-tail's chakra.

"I can see, now. This is the source of your power," Sasuke said.

"Impressive that you've become able to see me, here inside Naruto," the nine tailed fox said. "Such would be the power of that accursed sharingan and your forsaken bloodline."

"Well, it would appear this isn't the first time you've gazed into eyes such as these... which would make you... the nine tailed demon fox, no doubt."

"Eyes with such power and a spirit more sinister than my own," the fox went on. "Not at all unlike what I saw in a certain Madara Uchiha."

"Is that name supposed to mean something to me?" Sasuke touched the bubble of chakra that held Naruto, and it burst, freeing the young man from its grasp. The Uchiha turned toward the kyuubi. "Don't interfere, fox."

"Unbelievable. To think that you could even suppress my power," the demon growled, his chakra receding into its cage. "I may not see you again, but I warn you. Don't kill Naruto... you'll end up regretting it."

Naruto's demon cloak receded back into his body. He felt the sudden drop in speed, strength, and stamina immediately. He had been fighting hard this whole time, and now his fatigue was catching up to him. "I won't give up!" he asserted, continuing his assault on Sasuke.

Aang joined him, both working together to keep Sasuke off balance. Both knew that he was the biggest threat of the three of them, and, as they had no personal grief against each other, aside from being friends with enemies of the other, they had little problem teaming up.

Besides, Aang thought, this kid seemed to be an airbender. He had thought he was the last, but with this guy was the possibility that the Air Nomad culture could return. It wouldn't hurt to become allies.

In spite of the fact that he was outnumbered, Sasuke was now more swift and powerful than the two other fighters. He held them off rather effectively. His chidori nagashi created an electrical field around him when they came in for close combat, and his sharingan saw their longer range techniques coming in time to dodge.

Azula attacked relentlessly and efficiently, driving away both her brother and Itachi. She was more interested in the Uchiha than her brother, of course, and launched lethal strikes against him. Itachi deflected the flames, but this girl was skilled, precise, and, above all, focused on nothing less than the utter destruction of her enemy.

The fire princess found her face jammed into the dirt, the back of her head throbbing with pain. She lifted her head out of the ground and shook off the pain, looking up to find a blue garbed guy with a ponytail—scratch that, she thought, it was more like a wolftail... rather more dashing than something like a ponytail—catching a boomerang. Perhaps she had been a bit too focused.

"Alright, boomerang!" Sokka cheered. "Hey, Itachi, haven't seen you around..." He looked over at the exiled fire prince. "Hey, what are you doing here, jerk?"

Zuko scowled for a moment, but then noticed his sister rising to her feet and preparing a lightning strike. "Hey!" he shouts as she thrust her fingers toward Sokka. Itachi was already in motion. He knocked Sokka out of the way as Azula fired, and he absorbed the lightning strike, though had little time to redirect effectively.

"Augh!" Itachi grunted in pain. He fell to the ground, shaking slightly. "That was rather devious," he admitted. He stood and smirked, holding his burning side, but otherwise seemingly unaffected. He leaped toward Azula, Sokka and Zuko following suit, and they began to drive the girl back.

Meanwhile, Sasuke continued to engage Aang and Naruto, and they leaped from place to place in a frenetic long range battle. Sasuke's boot splashed into a puddle of water as he paused for a moment to spit fireballs at his pursuers. He then felt an icy chill run up his leg. Looking down, he saw that he was suddenly trapped by ice that had enveloped his leg from the puddle.

A barrage of water fangs suddenly collided with him, sending him crashing through the wall of a dilapidated building. He saw that girl the Avatar traveled with and the sharkfaced partner of his brother's join Aang and Naruto. He was probably in trouble, now. He began to make a tactical retreat.

Azula had decided on much the same, and she and her shinobi subordinate began to close the distance between them. The two studied their opponents back-to-back. They were surrounded on all sides, and both concluded there was no way they could fight their way out.

"Well, look at this," Azula said. "Enemies and traitors all working together. I'm done." She raised her hands in surrender. "I know when I'm beaten. You got me. A princess surrenders with honor."

"It's Ji-rai-ya!" A voice suddenly cut through the tense atmosphere. "Itachi managed to incapacitate me for awhile, but nothing stops the great sage of Myouboku mountain for long."

Zuko and Naruto glanced at the old man who had just appeared upon a giant toad. Within that glance, both boys found themselves being flung back as Azula shot a jet of blue flame into Naruto's chest and Sasuke unleashed a summoned snake from his sleeve that sunk its teeth into Zuko's arm.

"Oops," Jiraiya said. "Okay, let's get some toad oil pumping, buddy," he told his toad. He lit the stream of oil aflame as it shot toward the two attackers. Aang, Itachi, Kisame, and Katara joined his attack, and smoke and flame surrounded the two. When it subsided, they had disappeared.

- - -

"Well, Sasuke kun, it's good that I happened along when I did."

"Thank you, Lord Orochimaru," Sasuke said to the pale ninja master who sat in the throne before him. "I hadn't known of the trap door there. We might have had much more trouble had you not activated it when you did."

"It seems Kisame knocked out your comrades with a combination of some sort of mild poison and concussive force," the snake ninja continued. "Don't worry, I brought them with me."

"You have my thanks," Azula said. "Tell me, did my uncle make it back to prison safely?"

Orochimaru frowned. "I delivered him, but it seems your prison system is lacking. He escaped with the help of a... certain agent."

Azula scowled. "This won't do at all. My brother and the Avatar are both still uncaptured and now that old fool is loose again."

"I wouldn't worry about that for now," Orochimaru assured her. "He has not left the Fire Nation. For now, we have common goals. We both want the Avatar subdued, and capturing your brother... well, that's probably not going to be an issue."

"What do you mean by that?" Azula asked.

"Those snakes Sasuke kun summoned," Orochimaru explained, "are venomous. They probably won't kill him, but the venom was specially created and recently injected into their venom sacs to attack the nervous system in such a fashion as to paralyze its victim. In a few days, unless he is treated by a very skilled expert in medicine, the effects will be permanent."

The fire princess very nearly choked. "That... sounds truly horrible. I'm almost appalled."

"My apologies," Sasuke said to her. "I wasn't aware that their poison had been replaced..."

"Don't worry about it," Azula said. "I said I was just 'almost appalled.'"

- - -

"Take this message to Konoha," Jiraiya told the little toad he had summoned. "As quickly as possible. Tsunade must see this."

"You got it, boss," the messenger toad said. He then disappeared in a puff of smoke, back to whence he came in a faraway mountain range in the Fire Nation. Jiraiya sighed and looked back at Zuko. He was feverish and didn't seem able to move.

When the two attackers had disappeared, Jiraiya had immediately gone after Zuko, scooping him up and removing the snakes. By the time he went after Naruto, he was gone. As was Itachi and the others.

"Eesh..." Jiraiya sighed. "I hope the kid doesn't do anything too dumb."

- - -

Naruto felt a cool, pleasant feeling on his chest. Energy seemed to flow into him, invigorating him. His eyes cracked open, revealing the blurry image of a face. "I think he's waking up," the face said in a ringing voice.

"Nn..." he groaned. "S-Sakura...?" He reached out for the figure in front of him, and his hands pressed against soft flesh. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again, baby..."

"Hands off!" the figure screeched, and Naruto found his face slapped with a liquid whip. "Huh? Wha?" His eyes cleared and he saw a dusky complexioned water tribe girl glaring at him with angry blue eyes. "Oh... sorry, thought you were someone else."

Sokka's eye twitched as he patted his club in his palm. "So... this 'Sakura' girl would've been okay with you groping her?"

"Nah," Naruto said. "In fact, she'd have hit me a lot harder. It's probably a good thing I was mistaken." He grinned foxily. "But it would have been worth it..."

"Tell me, Naruto," Itachi suddenly interrupted. "Where did you get this scroll?" He removed a rolled up parchment from Naruto's jacket, which he had clutched in his other hand.

"Itachi!" Naruto growled, his mood souring. "I got nothing to say to you!" He looked over to see the younger bald boy with blue tattoos at the head of the beast on which the rode. "Actually... it's for you... airbender... guy."

"For me?" Aang asked, curiously. "You don't even know me. Why do you have something for me?" He took the scroll from Itachi and read it. "Who's 'guru Pathik?'"

"He helped me learn airbending," Naruto said. "He was friends with a guy who knew you... named Gyatso. He said he needed to teach you how to control your Avatar thing."

The airbender considered this. "Monk Gyatso..." He turned to the others. "I... I have to go see him."

"Sounds fun... but first we have to go somewhere important. Somewhere in the desert," Kisame said.

"Yes," Itachi said. "Very important business."

"Okay," Aang said. "The guru's apparently waited a hundred years already. I guess he can wait a little longer."

"That's awesome," Naruto said. "So... can you let me go, now?"

"No," they all said in unison.


	11. The Library

**Elements of War**

**Forward: Here it is, the midseason finale... kinda. I really didn't plan on having several weeks pass between posting the last chapter and these two, but with graduation and trying to find a new job after getting laid off, et cetera, I haven't been feeling much up to writing. I also may be getting evicted and/or losing my internet, depending on who decides they haven't gotten enough money from me recently first. Hopefully that won't happen, but if I don't post again for a bit, the chances are that something like that is the reason. Anyway, enjoy chapters ten and eleven.  
**

**Chapter 10  
The Library  
**

"And how go your preparations for the chuunin exams?"

"As planned, Lord Hokage. Everything should be ready in time."

"Very good, Shikamaru. I trust you and our liaison to the Sand village are getting along fine?"

Temari and Shikamaru exchanged glances. "He's not too insufferable, Lord Hokage," the sand kunoichi responded.

"She's only a little bothersome, I suppose."

Tsunade smirked. "Very good. Then I hope—"

"Aloha, Lady Tsunade!" a voice interrupted. "Best wishes from Lord Jiraiya."

The Fifth Hokage turned with a miffed look adorning her deceptively youthful visage. "What is it, now? He hasn't written in almost a year."

"And he sends his most abject apologies, ma'am," the messenger toad said as he plopped down onto the Hokage's desk. "But I'm afraid the situation is dire."

Tsunade removed the letter from the toad and looked it over. She remained calm for a moment, but then her eyes widened and she gasped. "Naruto has been kidnapped by Akatsuki?" She crumpled the paper. "And he said he could handle them!"

"Naruto..." Shikamaru repeated. "So he's in trouble again."

Tsunade scoffed. "And apparently there's some kind of medical emergency involved. Some kind of poison Jiraiya has never seen before."

"He sent a map of the exact location he will be waiting for you," the toad said.

She studied the map carefully. "They're not in an area with a lot of natural healing herbs... it would be difficult to plan what to bring for an unknown poison, too..." she looked more closely, rubbing her chin. "I see... Sunagakure is near there." She turned to Temari. "Am I correct to assume they have some kind of greenhouse with a variety of herbs?"

"Yes, Lord Hokage," Temari confirmed. "And I'm sure Lord Kazekage would leave it to your disposal should you need."

"Very good..." Tsunade said. "I wish I could go, myself... but I know someone who would be just as qualified, and probably would like to go more than I would, besides."

"I would be happy to come along with Ms. Haruno, as well. She will want a guide from the sand village to get through quickly," Temari said.

Shikamaru nodded. "I volunteer, as well."

Tsunade frowned. "Are you forgetting about the chuunin Exam? You are a proctor."

Shikamaru nodded. "I understand, but Naruto is an important member of this village. Beyond that, I would be the best choice to retrieve him. He's my comrade, and I know him better than any of the other shinobi outside his team."

Tsunade sighed. She was really too sentimental. She could just as easily send a higher ranked shinobi as backup with Kakashi and her student, but she felt in her heart that sending Shikamaru and Temari would be the right choice. "Then… just try to be back in time for the exam. Otherwise I'll have to think of some excuse…"

Shikamaru's face softened. "Yes, Lord Hokage."

- - -

Aang blew softly into a thin flute, allowing a lilting melody to emerge from it, wafting over the plains. Itachi and Kisame joined him on suona and the zheng. From the ground emerged prairie dogs who sang along. Katara giggled as Momo chased the small creatures about.

"Wow, I never thought a criminal organization would be so laid back..." Naruto commented.

"You're one to talk," Sokka quipped. "Anyway, he's right. As much fun as I'm sure it is getting a bunch of big rodents to form an orchestra, we do have things to do."

"It's not a problem for us," Kisame responded. "We're just waiting for the others to get here."

"Aang hasn't even mastered earthbending, yet!" Sokka retorted. "He's only picked up a little from fighting with Toph, so far. And he still has firebending to learn!"

"I could show you a little firebending, Aang," Itachi said. "Fire is my family's natural affinity, and while it is normally applied to ninjutsu, I've seen enough master firebenders in my life to have learned the technique with proficiency."

Aang looked pensive. "I… I don't think so… I don't really… want… to learn firebending."

Itachi shrugged. "Well, sometimes what you want to do doesn't coincide with what you have to… and what you will do."

"That may be so," Aang said. "But if I can beat the Fire Lord without firebending, I'm going to do it."

"Very well, Aang," Itachi said. "I understand. You're not ready for it. How about I teach you earthbending, then?"

Aang looked a bit confused. "Earthbending? How would you do that? You're not an earthbender."

"True, but you know of what those of my family are capable. Having seen plenty of earthbending masters in my time, I think I can help you."

"Okay…"

- - -

Jiraiya summoned his messenger toad to him. "Well, did you find Tsunade and tell her? What has she decided?"

"She's going to send Kakashi and Sakura, as well as Shikamaru of Team 10 and Temari of the Sand," the toad responded.

"Sakura…?" Jiraiya repeated. "Why would she send that girl? I know she's been training under Tsunade, but this is a case of an unknown poison. Even Shizune would be unable to treat that…" He looked back at Zuko, who was still in a feverish state. He hadn't regained consciousness for awhile, but his vitals were okay. Still, if he went many more days without treatment, the damage done to his nervous system would be permanent. There was no guarantee he would even survive.

"It will be another two days before they get here, sir," the toad continued. "Lady Tsunade said once Kakashi's team gets here, Zuko will need to be taken to the Sand Village for proper treatment."

"Sunagakure, huh?" Jiraiya mused. "I just hope they can make it in time…"

- - -

"Widen your stance, Aang," Itachi ordered. "An Earthbender's strength comes from balance. No matter what comes at you, never let your root break."

The young airbender dropped his pelvis almost in line with his knees. "Ugh... this... is really... uncomfortable."

"Hold that pose," Itachi said. He dropped into his own earthbending stance. His balance was perfect. "Now I want you to block my attacks, just the way I taught you."

"Sure," Aang said. "But... I don't know how this is going to help my earthbending without real earth to bend."

"You forget," Itachi said. "I have that covered." His sharingan eyes bore into Aang's, and he suddenly lifted his arms. Large stones ripped themselves out of the ground and he slapped the rocks with the palms of his hands, sending them flying toward Aang in a predetermined pattern. For a moment, Aang was surprised that Itachi could earthbend even though he wasn't actively trying to earthbend as well, but his musings would have to be left for another time, as the boulders neared him.

Aang moved his arms to block, bringing an arm over his head to block high and down to protect his groin low. He brought his arms together in a chamber to block the mid strikes. His legs remained firm as Itachi stepped up the speed of the attack. The stones shattered centimeters from the boy's arms and the shards dispersed harmlessly. After ten minutes of this grueling exercise, Itachi finally stopped.

"Very good, Aang," the older man said. "You have basic defense maneuvers down. We'll work on your footwork, later."

Aang panted heavily. "Thanks, Itachi." He plopped down in the dirt for a breather, and Itachi also sat several feet away on a large boulder. "Hey, Itachi..."

"Hn?"

"It's... about your little brother. What did you do to make him hate you so much?"

The Uchiha's face remained calm and expressionless, but he turned his face away. "His hatred is entirely justified. I took from him everything but hate." He turned back to Aang. "It will make him strong... and, more importantly, it will keep my village safe from his wrath."

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"Have you ever been responsible for the death of your people, Aang?" Itachi's eyes were hollow as he spoke, and the Avatar could clearly see his pain.

"Yes," Aang said. "At least, I feel that way. When I learned I was the Avatar, I just wanted to hide. I didn't want to take that much responsibility. And when I learned they were going to take me away from my teacher, Monk Gyatso... I ran away. Because of that, I ended up frozen for a century, and all the Air Nomads were wiped out by the Fire Nation."

Itachi nodded and waved Aang over to him. The Avatar approached and as he came within arm's length, the Uchiha reached out and poked him with two fingers on the forehead. Aang hobbled back, his tattoos glowing faintly. "Aang... not all the Air Nomads died that day."

The Avatar regained his balance. "What do you mean?"

"Some did escape," Itachi said. "No masters were able to escape... mostly young children. However, most of the Air Nomads' decedents now live in the village hidden in sands in the very desert to where we travel. They are the last representatives of the Air Nation."

"So... I was right. Airbenders are still around."

"Yes," Itachi said. "But even in the village of sand there only a handful of shinobi who have a wind affinity, and not all are Air Nomad decedents."

"Even so," Aang said. "That's amazing news. I thought I was the last one. Even if they aren't Air Nomad in culture, it's still good to know that... something is left."

"It is, isn't it?" Itachi's smile was faint.

- - -

Two figures stood in the hot desert, their forms garbed in black. They both wore kasa upon their heads as well, which further disguise their appearance. The taller figure spoke to his crouched comrade. "Are we just going to wait here for Itachi and Kisame? Hm?"

"We are," the other man said. "You would be wise to develop a habit for patience, Deidara-bozu."

"Ah, Sasori-dana, life is fleeting and beautiful. Hmm. One can't wait around forever; sooner or later, everything worthwhile ends."

"If something were so important, it would not end so easily." A long, scorpion-like tail protruding from Sasori's backside wiggled perturbedly. "True beauty lasts forever!"

"What of the simple snowflake?" Deidara said in response. "What of the beauty of the meteors that light the sky for an instant before being burned to nothing and the singular moment of the sun rising in the east. What of the bakawali flower, which only blooms but once a year at midnight?"

"Deidara."

"What do you say to the cherry blossoms or the autumn leaves?"

"Deidara!"

"And what about the very fleetingness of human life which blazes brightly for—"

"Hey, brat!"

Deidara paused and turned to his senior. "Eh? What are you going on about, Master Sasori?"

The hunched Daybreak member lifted a wooden hand and pointed across the dunes to a cloud of dust blowing its way across the desert. "Your quarry... it's passing us right now."

Deidara looked to the front of the dust storm, adjusting his eyepiece to magnify the image before him. Indeed, it seemed as if the Wind Shadow was going on a trip. "I wonder where he could be going..." The blond man turned to his partner. "What do you think? Should we follow him? Attack him while he's alone, hm?"

"That would be unwise," Sasori said.

"Pff." Deidara looked skeptically at his partner. "It sounds like a good plan to me. A true artist has to respond readily to new circumstances. Your obsession with sticking to your plans without exploiting a tangent here or there is exactly why your puppets are all so... mechanical."

"My puppets are mechanical," Sasori said. "Because they're _machines_."

"Always quibbling over details," the blond said as he raised his hands. On the palms of his hands, tiny mouths opened, coughing up a great deal of clay. The clay formed itself into a giant bird, and Deidara hopped on. "You stay here and wait for Itachi. I'll go get my beast." With that, he flew off after Gaara.

"Insolent brat..." Sasori sighed.

After a while, Gaara reached the spire of the spirit library. This was his own special sanctuary where he browsed the lost knowledge of generations. Currently, it was buried beneath the sand, but he and the spirit who kept the library, Wan Shi Tong, had come to an agreement. He used the power granted him by Shukaku to lift the sand from the spires of the library, letting the winds blow it away. In a moment, the desert revealed the magnificent building to the Wind Shadow, and he moved toward its entrance.

"Hold it!"

Gaara paused and looked back. A disheveled figure was running toward him, obviously having been caught in his sandstorm. "Who approaches?"

The figure heaved as he came to a stop a short distance away from the hole in the desert floor Gaara had created. "You... you... I mean... I'm Professor Zei. I teach anthropology at Ba Sing Se University."

"Zei," Gaara repeated. "What is it you want?"

"I... I've been looking for this for years!" he said, pulling a scroll from his robe and unrolling it. He adjusted his glasses and peered at the scroll, a large drawing of the legendary spirit library, and looked back at the actual building. "It's more magnificent than I'd thought... this is the library, isn't it?"

"It is," Gaara said. "However, Wan Shi Tong is wary of humans. Before I came, a captain from the Fire Navy found the library, used the knowledge within for his own ambitions, and burned much of his collection."

"So... Wan Shi Tong exists as well..." the professor said. He shook off his awe. "Ah... yes. Of course I only wish to enter the library for knowledge's sake. I have no ambitions other than to learn all I can."

"Then... perhaps you would be allowed entrance," Gaara said. "Follow me."

The two entered the library, where the large owl spirit greeted them. "Shukaku's Sacrifice," he said. "Why have you brought this human, here?"

"He was outside the library," Gaara said. "He claims to be a professor at a university. He wants to learn more about this library and its contents."

"Why?" Wan Shi Tong asked. "Who are you out to destroy?"

"No one, sir," Zei responded. "I only want knowledge for knowledge's sake."

The owl looked from him to Gaara and back to Zei. "Hmmm. I suppose I could allow this one human to peruse my collection. One condition, however. To prove your worth as a scholar, contribute some worthwhile knowledge."

"Please accept this tome as a donation to your library," Zei said as he offered a thick book.

"First edition," the owl said. "Very nice." He passed his wing over it and it disappeared. "Enjoy the library."

- - -

"Sasori," Itachi said as Appa touched down on the sand. "Where is Deidara?"

"Hmp," the hunched man said. "He saw the one tail leaving his hidden village and decided to go after him. They aren't too far from here... you can still kind of see the mushroom cloud up there." He pointed up to the sky where the sand from Gaara's unveiling of the library was floating high above.

"Foolish," Itachi said. "As usual."

"The 'one tail?'" Naruto interjected. "You mean Gaara? You'd better not lay a hand on him!"

Sokka caught the young man as he nearly jumped out of Appa's saddle. The water tribe boy was lucky that Naruto was tied up. He was hard enough to handle without his limbs' freedom of movement. "Hey, fire ninja guy, settle down," he said.

"So, Itachi," Sasori said, noting the orange clad shinobi. "You've succeeded in capturing the nine tails. Ahead of schedule, no less. You'll make the rest of us look bad."

"It shouldn't be a problem," Itachi said. "We can seal them both."

"Umm," Aang said, interrupting the Daybreak members. "Can I ask you something?"

"As you wish, Avatar," Itachi said.

"Um... what's this business about one and nine tails? And 'sealing them both?'"

"Yeah, I'm a bit confused about what you guys are talking about," Sokka said.

"It would take some time to explain," Itachi said. "But... you have all heard of the Nine Tailed Beasts, correct?"

"I think I heard some stories about something like that. There was a cat, a tanuki, a fox..."

"Gran-gran told us a story about a three tailed dragon-turtle," Katara said. "I don't think we heard about any others, though..."

"That's right," Itachi said. "There are nine demons of extraordinary power. Some of these demons have been sealed within humans, such as this one, here." He pointed at Naruto. "His is the most dangerous of them. The all powerful nine tailed fox."

Sokka jumped away from Naruto at that comment.

"However, sealing the demons in individuals is dangerous. Sometimes they cannot control the destructive power of the beasts. Some have simply been driven insane by the spirit. It's unpredictable, so Akatsuki has the current mission of extracting the beasts and sealing them away in something else… something with which we can control that limitless power."

"So you can use it to defeat the Fire Nation!" Sokka said with gusto. "That's a great idea!"

"Hey, that's not a great idea!" Naruto said. "They're kidnapping us!"

"That's enough discussion," Itachi said. "We need to make sure the nine tailed fox is sealed quickly. You should take Naruto back to the hideout." Itachi turned to Aang. "It's a fairly long trek. Aang, would you allow Sasori to borrow your bison, so that we may extract the kyuubi with all due haste? You recall how he transformed before... it could happen again if we don't act fast."

"Y-yeah," Aang said. "That sounds fine."

"Good. You, Katara, and I will go assist Deidara, then." Itachi turned to Sasori. "We will be there, soon."

"Alright," the man said. "But don't make me wait too much longer. I hate waiting."

"Hey," Sokka said as the hunched Akatsuki leaped onto Appa with Naruto. "What about me?"

- - -

"Temari!" Kankuro greeted his older sister happily. "You weren't supposed be back for another week!"

"Something came up," the eldest sand sibling said. "Team 7 from the leaf village is going to need access to our medical facilities."

"The leaf village?" Kankuro asked. "But... why?"

"There's no time for questions, Kankuro!"

"Alright, alright!"

Minutes later, a feverish, scarred body was plopped down onto a hospital bed. He was pale, and his facial scar burned bright red. Sakura, the pink haired apprentice of Tsunade, waved everyone else away. She took a bowl of water and let her energy flow into it. The water collected itself around her hands and she pressed her hands onto Zuko's shivering flesh. The water seeped through his pores and Sakura traced her fingers across the major routes of blood flow. She could sense the poison in his body, and the water collected it as she went along. When she was finished, she pulled the water out of his body with globules of venom suspended in it.

"Alright," she said. "That should take care of the immediate danger. Now I just need to mix some herbs to counteract the damage already done."

As she left to find the proper herbs, Kankuro turned to his sister. "So... what's going on?"

"Naruto was kidnapped by the Akatsuki."

"Naruto... aren't they...?"

"Yeah," Temari said. "They want the Sacrifices. That means if they're around here, Gaara could be in danger, too."

"Aw, hogmonkeys..." Kankuro said. "Gaara's not even here, right now."

"What? Why did you let him leave?" Temari shouted.

"Well, I didn't think he'd be in any danger," Kankuro said. "Besides, how am I going to stop him? He loves that damn library!"

"And we don't even know exactly where it is," Temari said. "He doesn't let anyone go with him."

Kankuro worked his jaw. "I'll go look for him. We know his general direction, at least."

"Alright... but at least take Baki along. I don't want you running into one of the Akatsuki alone."

"Sure," he said. "I'll even take along some of Gaara's elite."

- - -

Deidara clung to one of the spires of the library. His clay constructs creeped inside the building, scouring the area for his quarry. One earthen spider wandered across a bookshelf in front of which the particularly tired looking shinobi studied the contents of a scroll. The spider's eye absorbed the information it saw and sent a vision of its prey to its master.

"So, he's a real bibliophile, hm?" Deidara commented. "I wonder... what's the best way to flush him out?" His fingers intertwined in a blur, and his chakra energy flowed out of him to signal his minions of his wishes. "This ought to do it... hm."

Clay creatures scuttled their way through the tomes and scrolls and toward the bookshelf at which Gaara stood. The Wind Shadow mused on an illustration of a lion-turtle looming over a prostrate figure. The lion-turtle was an old legend, and they had disappeared from the world long before the dragons had.

Suddenly, an object hit the back of the scroll and seemed to cling. Before Gaara could turn the parchment to see what had attached itself to his reading material, the scroll burst into flames. Gaara dropped the burning paper to the floor and buried it in sand. Explosions flowered through the hall, and the young shinobi village leader smothered the flames in sand, doing his best to quell the damage. He spotted an unfamiliar form at the end of the hall.

"Who are you?" Gaara asked coldly.

"Hmm... I am a simple artist." The figure brushed his hair in the shadows. "This library... it is an affront to true art. It attempts to preserve when true art is fleeting. It's an abomination. Hm!"

"So you want to destroy this collected knowledge out of some twisted sense of aesthetic?"

"Yes. That, and I want the Ichibi within you."

Gaara was silent for a moment. "Shukaku... why do you want it? Are you from the Daybreak Organization?"

"So you've heard of us." The figure laughed sharply. "I might be willing to spare this place."

Gaara's eyes narrowed. The sand that swirled around his body instantly coalesced and shot through the air, a sharp point plunging itself into the figure's head with a thunk. The figure fell to its knees and the Kazekage could see it seeming to melt. It was some kind of clay clone!

An explosion, larger than any of the others, rocked the wing, blowing countless books and scrolls to dust. Gaara's demon inmate had wrapped its jailer in a sphere of sand, protecting him from the explosion. The shinobi allowed the sand to fall and looked at the devastation. He heard a shriek of rage in the distance. Wan Shi Tong was not amused. Neither, for that matter, was he.

The great library shuttered and began to sink into the sand. Deidara leaped off the spire and onto his clay bird. "Whoa," he said. "I didn't think I made it that explosive... hm."

"Mortal!" Wan Shi Tong screeched, flying out of the tower. "You dare to attempt to destroy this bastion of knowledge?" The knowledge spirit perched on top of the spire on which Deidara had clung and looked down on the blond shinobi. "Typical. When you're not using knowledge for evil purposes, you attempt to destroy it. Well, I'm taking it back!"

"Hey, I don't think you quite understand what I'm—" The Akatsuki member was cut off when the giant owl charged him, screaming with rage. Deidara's bird was almost too slow to dodge the angered spirit. "Hm!"

The young Akatsuki operative realized that the library was sinking, his quarry still within. "Wait... wait, you stupid bird!" he shouted. "I need what's inside there!"

"That's why you're not getting it," Wan Shi Tong countered, turning around for another pass.

Deidara spat out a plethora of small clay flies from the palms on his hands. The tiny creatures swarmed Wan Shi Tong and they exploded around the spirit. The owl wavered in its flight, but kept coming strong. Deidara leaped off his bird as Wan Shi Tong snapped at him. He dropped into the window and down the spire into the heart of the library.

Foxes surrounded the shinobi, growling angrily. "What's all this, hm?" He thrashed about as the kitsune attacked, smacking the canines away. The foxes were of little consequence, but he was taken off guard when a heavy book came down upon his head. He stumbled to his knees and looked behind him. A bespectacled man stood there, eyes wide with panic.

"Get out of here!" Zei said. "I've been looking for this place for years, and I won't let you take it away!"

"Yeesh, I can't believe I just got clocked by a bookworm," Deidara said. He spat out a lump of clay and shaped it. "Oh, well, I'll just have to get rid of you." He tossed the clay at the man, but a wall of sand intercepted it, and the explosive detonated harmlessly. Deidara turned to see the rust haired Wind Shadow looming over him. "Hm…"

A tendril of sand reached out for Deidara, and the young Akatsuki member leaped back, attempting to evade it. However, enclosed as he was in the halls of the library, he was unable to maneuver effectively. Guess this was a bad idea, he thought. He tossed a barrage of bird at the boy, but the attacks were stopped easily by a wall of earth.

Gaara thrust his palm forward behind the wall, and a clawed hand emerged from it, whistling through the air, unhindered by wind resistance. It grasped the blond's left arm and Gaara clenched his fist. "Desert Coffin," he announced to the Daybreak shinobi, lest he be unaware of the name of the technique that would defeat him.

Deidara shouted, but he used the opportunity to launch another flurry of clay figures at his opponent, taking advantage of the gap in his defense created by forming the arm. Gaara's defense was quick, however, and he withdrew the arm to recreate the impenetrable wall. The blond man knew he had to get out of the building if he was going to put his plan in action, now. He used the distraction to leap back up the spire, and exited the building, only to run into Wan Shi Tong, who was waiting for him.

"Go back, mortal," the knowledge spirit said, "And I will bury you with my library."

"No, thanks." Deidara leaped back onto his bird and flew away from the owl. He had only a little clay left, now, but one was a C3 explosive, his most powerful, and the other was homing. With just these, he could probably defeat Gaara.

As Deidara expected, the human sacrifice emerged from the library, a cold, lethal expression still on his face. "To be stopped from below would put me in such a bad mood," he told the sandbending shinobi. "That, and I'm tired of your expressionless face." He tossed a clay doll from his perch, and it hurtled down toward the library. "I'm going to destroy that precious library of yours, hm!"

Wan Shi Tong intercepted the explosive. He beat his wings hard to create a strong gust of air which repelled the bomb right back toward Deidara. "You'll suffer your own poison, mortal!"

The shinobi gasped. That clay was going to strike him if he didn't move fast. He forced his transport to climb, and the bomb struck the underbelly of the clay beast. At the same time, Deidara leapt from it as far as he could. The clay bird was, of course, ripped apart, but it had blunted the force of the explosion. It wasn't by much, unfortunately, and the shinobi found himself being buffeted about by the shockwave of the explosion.

He wouldn't be taken down without a fight, however. When Gaara had entrapped his hand, he had quickly chewed some of the sand with the mouth on his hand, mixing it with his explosive saliva. The explosive clay was buried somewhere in that shinobi's blood-soaked sand. Without the distraction provided by protecting the library, however, he could not be certain that Gaara would use that particular sand to protect himself, as he still had plenty of sand within reach.

There was nothing to lose at this point, Deidara decided. He launched his homing bird while still in midflight, and it made a beeline for the jinchuuriki. Gaara drew sand around his front, and the doll exploded harmlessly. Deidara then release the explosive properties of his clay, and an explosion erupted from the sand, blowing Gaara back.

Deidara landed. Or, rather, he was caught by a small pair of hands. He looked over to see who had saved him from what might have been grievous injury, and saw the face of a young boy with a blue arrow tattooed on his forehead. "Eh… an airbender?" He looked toward the Kazekage for a moment, seeing him land as well. It seemed that his sand had followed him, probably cushioning his fall, but also burying him in sand. He hopped out of the small boy's arms, feeling slightly embarrassed. "Well, I didn't think I would be saved by a member of an extinct culture, today, hm."

"It's no problem," Aang said. "I'm the Avatar, helping people is my job. Besides, you're Itachi's friend, right?"

"Itachi?" Deidara said, looking around and seeing the Uchiha. He frowned. "Hm. Something like that." He still remembered the day he had been inducted into Daybreak. That guy had thoroughly humiliated him. No, they weren't friends, but he wouldn't kill the guy until after they had completed their mission.

"It seems as if you're having trouble with this one," Itachi said. "Do you require assistance?"

"Not at all!" Deidara said. "As you can see, I blew the competition away, hm!"

"Really?" Itachi asked, looking to where the human sacrifice had fallen. A loud shriek was heard from there, and a globe of sand arose from the desert floor.

"Oh…" Deidara said. "Well, you know… maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea. I'm out of my clay and almost out of energy, too. Perhaps you could help, Avatar."

"Me?" Aang asked. "But… well, I don't know… it's not really my philosophy to attack someone without provocation."

"Let me explain it to you this way," Deidara said. "That guy over there… he may not be that bad a guy. But what possesses him is the one tailed beast. With it, he can use both earth and wind elements at the same time. Not only that, but most of these people who are possessed tend to be mentally unbalanced, and the demon contained within can also assert its personality in times of stress." He turned toward the howling Wind Shadow. "And it seems he's become rather stressed, now. If you don't help, I'm afraid we'll have a rampaging spirit on our hands."

The monk nodded. "I understand. It's also my job as bridge to the spirit world to stop something like that from happening, but just the same I'm going to try to reason with him, first. Maybe we can get him to agree to have the spirit taken out on his own."

"Unlikely," Itachi said. "Those who have power are not often willing to give it up, even when that power is likely to destroy him."

"I'll try, anyway," Aang said, and with that he walked toward the sphere of sand. Above, Wan Shi Tong watched passively. The one who had destroyed his library was defeated, and now the spirit was allowing the building to sink into the desert floor. "Hey, excuse me, Mr. One Tail," he said to the pulsing sand. "Is there any way you'd be willing to come with us? We just want to extract the spirit inside you. It's really dangerous, you see, so it would probably be best for everyone…"

Gaara could hear Aang's muffled voice through the walls, and he could see him with his single eye floating above the sphere. He was already partially transformed, with sand forming half a raccoon-dog's face with the spirit's eye staring out from it. He was confused as to why this person affiliated with the Akatsuki was wearing an old air nomad outfit, but it hardly mattered. He was trying to kill him by taking the spirit away. He couldn't allow that. He had to protect his people.

A vein-covered arm of sand popped out of the sphere and reached for Aang. The boy dodged it, but it kept following him. He stopped and swept his arms, creating blades of air which chopped the arm into pieces. "Hey, there's no need to get violent!" he said. He was answered by a triad of Gaara sand clones which rose from the desert floor and attacked him with far greater speed than what Aang would have expected from piles of sand.

- - -

Sand stung Appa's eyes as he flew through the air. The sandstorm had blown in suddenly and the bison was now flying nearly blind. Sasori was pretty sure they had started going in circles. Finally, the bison landed, and Sasori descended from the saddle, Naruto wrapped in his long tail. "It seems we will have to proceed on foot from here, after all..." He was glad that he had injected the fox boy with a sedative. The boy was still semi-conscious, but he should stay quite mellow for the next several hours. He began to trudge through the sand, leading the bison behind him.

Before he got far, however, he noticed a shift in the currents. There was a sand skiff approaching, filled with sandbenders, a group of benders with mostly earth affinity, though three had the affinity of air. They had been taught by the container of the one tailed beast.

Kankurou stood upon the skiff as they passed by the cloaked shinobi. He recognized the clothing as typical of Akatsuki, and, further, he definitely recognized the bright orange coat that garbed the young man in the grasp of his tail. "Hey!" he called out.

The sandbenders halted the skiff in front of Sasori and casually pushed the sand and wind aside, creating a bubble of calm about them all. The old ninja stared at them with agitation. "You should get out of my way. I don't like keeping people waiting."

"Then hand over the kid, and we won't keep you," the elder sand brother said.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," the other responded.

Kankurou growled and leaped onto the sand, removing three large scrolls from his back. He dropped them onto the ground and they unrolled themselves, revealing the names of Kuroari, the black ant, Sanshouuo, the salamander, and Karasu, the crow. With a series of hand gestures he summoned the three puppets, lifting them into the air by thin strands of chakra energy flowing from the tips of his fingers. He jerked his fingers, sending Kuroari scurrying.

Sasori dropped Naruto on the sand and caught the quad-armed puppet with it deftly. He leveled his impatient gaze at the face-painted shinobi. "I suppose I'll just have to make this quick." He looked around the sandbenders, with Baki standing among them. "I'll have to thin the heard, first, I suppose."

The young commander of the squad of sandbenders gasped as a seal in his mind suddenly broke at Sasori's command. Memories of his time with Akatsuki came flooding back, and his mission as well. He knew he had to help his master, now, and to do that he would have to kill his other self's teammates. He pulled the sand he had been keeping at bay toward himself and compressed the grains into three earthen stakes, then shot them through the hearts of three of his teammates. That left two more sandbenders plus Baki.

The two other sandbenders noticed immediately that their leader had diverted his his share of the workload, and when they heard the grunts of their dying teammates; they instantly reacted by diverting their own bending to wrap themselves in a concealing cloak of sand. Baki reacted to the sudden wall of sand that bore down on him with typical elite ninja efficiency, diving for cover and studying his surroundings closely.

The squad commander quickly found one of his subordinates and attacked from behind. Unfortunately, it seemed that it was a sand clone, and he suddenly found himself ambushed by his two former comrades. He suffered some minor damage before managing to dive under the sand. He took one of his foes underneath as well, performing the desert coffin technique, crushing the man's lungs.

The final bender threw up her arms, causing the desert floor to lurch, and the commander was thrown from his cover. She attacked him, but after a short exchange, he gained the upper hand and punched her into the side of the sand skiff. With great effort, he pulled a great tentacle of sand from the floor and allowed it to fall on the stunned bender and the skiff, crushing both.

Meanwhile, Sasori had crushed an attacking Sanshouuo as well as Karasu, which had tried to circle around. "Your puppet's hidden poison preparation is worthy of praise," the Daybreak member said.

"What?" Kankurou asked. "That's... the first time my puppet's preparation has been seen through so deeply."

Sasori laughed. "It's because the one that created your puppets—Crow, Black Ant, and Salamander—was none other than me." He laughed dryly. "A cute kid like you being my opponent has been the most fun I've had in a long time."

"So wait..." Kankurou said. "You're the one they called the puppet army's genius model creator, Sasori of the Red Sands, right?"

"For my name to be known all the way down to a kid like you," Sasori said, "Is an honor."

"You left the Sand over twenty years ago," Kankurou said. "Why?"

"What good is it for a person about to die to ask that?" Sasori leveled his tail, poison dripping from it. It shot out, and Kankurou pulled Kuroari's decapitated head into the tail's path, deflecting it. At the same time the puppet's arm, poisoned knife bared, shot at the puppet master's head, which Sasori narrowly avoided. "Close," he commented. He brought his tail around again. "But this time I will make sure my poison is delivered into your veins!"

"Rasengan!"

The puppet master suddenly found himself being tossed aside like a doll by a rear attack. He slid across the sands and glanced to the point of contact, seeing a wide dent there. Then he looked back to where he had been standing and saw his former prisoner standing tall, seemingly unaffected by his sedative now. "So... it's... Naruto!"


	12. Tanuki

**Elements of War**

**Chapter 11  
Tanuki  
**

The sandbender commander looked around for signs of Baki. The jounin must have been on the skiff when he'd crushed it, he decided. Now he would have to help his master take care of the puppet user. He sprinted toward the fight, bending the grains of sand out of his way. As he passed Appa, who had retreated to a safer distance when the fight broke out, he felt a sharp pain in his foot and stumbled. He looked down at his foot to find it gone.

Baki rolled out from under the air bison's stomach and the giant beast groaned with surprise and backed away. The Sand ninja rose over the traitor, dodging the desperate point blank attempts to throw sand in his face. He lifted his hand, wind circulating within a blade shaped by his body's energy. He brought his arm down, ceasing his vital functions.

Naruto, meanwhile, engaged the puppet master, Sasori, with sixteen clones not including himself. The Daybreak member's tail thrashed about, skewering several clones. Two got through his defense and attacked with a giant-sized rasengan. The puppet master's cloak ripped as he lowered himself and a shield sprung from his body, blocking the attack. The boy leaped back, avoiding the other's deadly tail counterattack.

Sasori then released countless poison-tipped needles from his body, directly at Naruto, Kankurou, and the just arrived Baki. The blond shinobi gasped and created a virtual wall of clones. "Get out of here!" He shouted as the clones started taking the hits, acting as a shield against the hail of weaponry. One needle managed to get through his wall of clones, however, and hit the boy squarely in the thigh. He groaned and collapse to one knee.

Kankurou removed a few small scrolls and rushed toward Appa. "Baki, grab Naruto quickly!" he said. He leaped onto the bison and unrolled the scrolls. He summoned several wooden shackles and used his puppetry to latch them onto the beast's legs, tail, and neck. Baki joined him with the young blond shinobi in tow.

"Come on, big guy," Kankurou prompted Appa as the shackles pulled him around. "Let's get out of here!"

The bison groaned in protest, but he was unable to stop his legs from moving. In fact, he was making quite good time away from the puppet master. Sasori was in pursuit, however, but when Baki brought this to Kankurou's attention, he jerked the bison's tail, pummeling the assassin with it. After a few moments, they were lost in the sands of the storm.

- - -

"Zuko, help me!"

Fire Lord Zuko could do nothing as he watched his mother disappear into the fires of his throne room. He leaped after her, but he found himself in the courtyard, where his sister and her friends were playing. It was noon on the summer solstice, he thought. He didn't know how he knew that, but he simply did. He heard his sister cry out, suddenly. She had been bitten by a turtle duck she had been tormenting, and she began to hurl rocks in anger.

"No, Azula!" Ty Lee cried. "Don't hurt the mama duck!"

Zuko began to jog over to his little sister, not more than six at this point in time. He had a sudden bad feeling, and it was confirmed when, suddenly, he saw his sister try to firebend at the turtle-duck. At first it came out its normal yellow-orange color. Then, however, it began to flare a bright blue, and her arm caught fire. She couldn't put it out. She began to scream as it overtook her body, and she flailed about uncontrollably.

Zuko dashed forth at full sprint and caught his sister up in his arms, throwing her into the fountain. It seemed to do no good, however. The flames seemed to burn even under the water, and now her whole body was engulfed in flames. He could only see her eyes, now, wide open and blank, seeming to glow unnaturally.

Seized with fear, he turned and ran from the horrible sight. He couldn't bear to watch his sister being burned alive. However, he suddenly found himself in the front of the palace, where his grandfather, Azulon, stood over a bloodied and bruised woman.

"You should not have challenged me," His grandfather said. His fingers traced a quick circle on either side of him, and with snake like speed he attacked the woman with a bright burst of lightning.

Zuko stepped forward, horrified by the blatant murder, but a hand stopped him. He turned back and saw his uncle, but he looked younger, with a smooth face and black hair. "Do nothing. These are the consequences Oshoi must face for her disrespect." His words were calm, though his eyes filled with sadness. However, Zuko could not help but feel betrayed. How could his uncle simply brush off this woman's death like this? What had she done to deserve such treatment?

Zuko turned back to the courtyard, but now he only saw smoke and flames. He coughed and tried to make his way through the haze. He stumbled, and he felt his lungs straining to give him oxygen that wasn't there. Then he saw his great grandfather standing above him. Zuko reached out, but the old man turned away.

"Don't let your bonds prevent you from doing what you know you must," he offered as he walked toward his dark dragon steed.

Zuko's eyes blurred with tears and he felt himself succumbing to the poisons of the earth.

His eyes snapped open. The blur from his eyes cleared after blinking a few times. He was in a room, and there was someone shuffling around. He turned his head and saw a girl in a red tunic standing over a table, grinding something in a bowl. She had pink hair tied up into a topknot. "Am... am I in the Fire Nation?" he asked.

Sakura turned around and fixed her jade eyes on the scarred boy. "Oh, you're awake. No, you're in the Sand Village, which is in the Earth Kingdom. My team and I are from the Fire Nation's Leaf Village, though." Zuko struggled to sit, but Sakura walked over and pressed him back down to the bed. "Hey, you just regained consciousness after being injected with a very damaging toxin. It was unlike anything I've seen."

Zuko scowled. "I'm surprised. After all, it was from one of your village's missing ninja."

"What?" Sakura asked. She hadn't been told of the actual source of the poison. It hadn't been entirely relevant at the time, anyway. "Who did this to you?"

"Sasuke Uchiha," Zuko said.

Sakura gasped. "Sasuke… so Naruto found him." She frowned. "That idiot. I can't believe he got himself kidnapped and you poisoned just so he could…" she then shook her head. "Wait. Sasuke _poisoned_ you?"

"That's what I said."

"That's impossible," Sakura said. "That's… not like him."

"Did you think it was like him to leave your village?" Zuko asked. "To betray you?"

Sakura cracked her knuckles. "Hey, listen," she said, her eyes growing hard as she stared down the prince. "I won't have you talking bad about my teammate, even if you are my patient."

The scarred man closed his eyes, seemingly unconcerned with the threat. "I have to get out of here. I'm going to find Sasuke, and I'm going to defeat him."

"How macho," Sakura said. "You're not going anywhere. I can understand your pride being hurt if he beat you in a fight, but you're still recovering."

Zuko rose to a sitting position before Sakura could push him back down, and he twirled on the bed so his legs dangled off the side. "This has nothing to do with my pride. He killed my uncle. At the very least, if his older brother is at all trustworthy, he made me believe he was dead, and that's even worse."

"You met Itachi, too!" Sakura asked.

"That's right," he said, hopping down onto the floor. He felt woozy, still, but he wasn't about to let himself be overtaken by a little fatigue. "I'm not sure who to believe. Apparently, shinobi aren't the most trustworthy people. However, I know where Sasuke was last. I'm going back to that ghost town and I'm going to find him." He threw on a brown tunic that had been set out for him.

Sakura hesitated. She was almost tempted to say "me, too," but then she remembered Naruto. The pint-sized shinobi might be loud and annoying, but he was her teammate, too. "Wait," she said. "You know Naruto, too, don't you?"

"Yeah," he said. "I guess I should thank him for bringing you here, but I'm in a hurry…"

"He's been captured," she said. "If we don't find him, he could be tortured or even killed."

Zuko frowned.

- - -

Aang slashed through the sand clones for what must have been the dozenth time. They seemed to just keep coming. However, he had closed in on Gaara's cocoon and he planted himself firmly in the ground, breathing deeply before unleashing a powerful wave of wind which slashed the protective sphere in two. The sand collapsed into a heap.

Aang remained alert even as the sand became still. He was sure he hadn't hit the jinchuuriki. After all, Gaara had seemed able to see even completely covered in sand, reminding him of Toph's extrasensory abilities.

The sand began to move again, but this time because the wind was picking up. It seemed a sandstorm was coming. Within seconds, the wind was howling over the former site of the spirit library and sand shrouded Aang's vision.

A hand came up from beneath Aang, its fingers wrapping around his torso. Aang crossed his arms in front of him before the earthen digits tightened, protecting him somewhat from the tightening grip. Gaara, himself, emerged a moment later and now was completely covered with demon sand. As Aang landed in the dirt and the sandstorm swirled about them, Gaara said in an angry growl, "I... will protect my people..."

Aang got to his knees, struggling against the wind. He could hear Katara shouting for him in the distance. They were trying to reach him, now. However, he felt the winds shift. It seemed as if Gaara was drawing the air and sand into a funnel focused on himself.

"I will defend the Wind Country!" Gaara shouted as the sand piled on his raccoon-dog shape, building to his final form.

Minutes passed in chaos until the air began to clear, revealing a much larger tanuki, made entirely out of sand. Aang was having trouble breathing, now, as the hand gripped still tighter on his chest. However, Katara reached him then, and she bent the water from her pouch into the hand. "Aang!" she said. "You need to push with all your strength!"

He did, and she pulled the water, catching the particles of dirt along with it. Aang tried to uncross his arms at the same time, and after a moment, he broke through the hand and it fell to the desert floor in pieces. "Thanks... Katara," he said, panting heavily.

"We have new problems to deal with," Itachi said, standing beside them with the other two Akatsuki and Sokka.

"No kidding," Sokka said. "That's one big sand monster!"

Gaara's upper body emerged from the head of the monster, looking fiercely down on his enemies. "No mercy." He began to inhale slowly, and at the same time the large tanuki also inhaled, its breath creating its own mini sandstorm. Then he let it go, a ball of supercharged air hurtling at its feet, where the Avatar and his allies stood.

Aang took his staff and twirled it, bending the air into a vortex to shield them, but the bolt of wind broke through the barrier easily, sending them all flying through the air. Aang began to fly quite literally, for as he gained his bearings in the air, he unfurled his glider and began to soar above the tanuki. "Hey!" he shouted down to Gaara. "Wait! You said you wanted to protect the Wind Country! Well, _I'm_ from the Air Nation! I'm an Air Nomad!"

The dark eyed Wind Shadow looked up at the flying monk. "The Air Nomads are all dead! They died one hundred years ago. Even if you've somehow learned to airbend, you're no part of the Wind Country. You're Akatsuki!" He let loose another powerful belch of wind.

Aang felt the blast hit him like a wall. Cartilage in his nose crunched and he felt his muscles strain and tear as he was ripped out of the sky.

"Go, Deidara," Itachi said.

"Right," Deidara responded. "Lucky my mouths got enough dirt in them to make a little more clay, but I think this might be all I have left." His mouth spewed the clay out, forming into a fairly small bird. The bird homed in on Aang's spirit energy and flew after him.

Itachi closed his right eye, and his left sharingan shifted into its kaleidoscope form. "We'll end this quickly," he said.

"Are you sure, Itachi?" Kisame asked. "That technique is dangerous…"

"I know what I'm doing," Itachi said, the capillaries in his eyes beginning to bulge and a small amount of blood pooling behind his lids. He stared hard at the beast's head where Gaara sat buried in demonic sand. "I call on the power of Agni."

A black explosion erupted from the top of Ichibi's head, and moments later several more explosions rocked the sand demon. The flames burned dark and hot, their heat melting the sand it came in contact with. The unnatural fire spread across the tanuki, eating slowly away at its target.

"Itachi!" Kisame said. "Careful! You'll kill him; then the boss will have our heads."

"No…" Itachi said. "The Sacrifice is fine."

Indeed, Gaara was now in the belly of the beast, Shukaku having sensed the supernatural powers coalescing upon his host an instant before the fires had erupted. Within the protective sands, the Wind Shadow came to a decision. Surrounded on all sides by powerful enemies, he would have to bring out his full power. It was fortunate that he was not near his village, and that the library had sunk back into the desert sands, for now he wouldn't have to worry about collateral damage. His consciousness receded then as he forced himself into a rare state of sleep.

Tendrils of sand burst from the tanuki's body, the intact sand leaving the burning sludge behind. At the same time sand rose from the desert floor behind the group and joined with Shukaku's sand. It reformed into the tanuki body and let loose a loud shriek of victory. "Free, again!"

"We're in trouble, aren't we," Sokka reasoned.

"Very," Itachi said, clutching his left eye as it throbbed in pain.

"Good to know."

Meanwhile, the bird that had gone after Aang returned, the boy resting semi-conscious on its small body. Katara rushed over to him, bending a small amount of water from her pouch to coat her hands while she applied healing techniques to the dark bruises adorning his body and his bloodied nose. He blinked his eyes as he began to regain his bearings.

Shukaku thrashed about on the desert floor, meanwhile, unconcerned for now with his opponents, relishing his ability to interact with the environment. "It's been years," he said. "And I feel… so much more complete since last time." Shukaku turned his head toward the ground. "And I can sense something… familiar. Who is it…?"

Shukaku saw the young Air Nomad, and a faint impression came into his mind. He felt almost as if he had known this child in a past life… though, being a demonic spirit, he hadn't technically had a past life; only a collection of past hosts. However, he had a distinct impression of awe at this boy, but at the same time felt fear and anger. This boy, he thought, could hurt him and seal him away again. He wouldn't have that. He breathed deeply and shrieked, a strong typhoon exiting his mouth.

Aang saw the beast attack. "Look out!" he shouted, and Itachi had almost instantly grabbed Katara and leaped out of the way of the attack. Kisame also had evacuated the area of attack, but Sokka and Deidara, in a moment of panic, latched on to each other and leaped face down into the dirt, their rears in the air. As the wall of wind approached, Aang could sense that it was stronger than before and if it struck him and the two young men huddling behind him would most likely be fatal.

From as far away as the village hidden in the sand, a mushroom cloud could be seen that easily dwarfed the cloud that had been created earlier by Gaara's unveiling of the library. One sand sentry who hailed from the Salis clan saw it and said to his friend "Look at the giant mushroom… maybe it's friendly!"

"Rhip," his friend said. "You haven't been drinking cactus juice again, have you?"

Back in the distance, Shukaku found himself moved several meters back from his original position. Aang was currently cloaked in swirling winds as he floated to the beast's eye level. One of Shukaku's arms then relieved itself of his shoulder. Something in the spirit's mind clicked, a foggy memory of long ago resurfacing. "Y-you!" he screeched. "Mmmasterrrr!" He sprouted a new arm and reached forth to grab the Avatar.

The Avatar slashed his arm diagonally, slicing the beast's hand in two. Then he narrowed his glowing eyes and breathed deeply. His stomach expanded as his diaphragm lowered to let the surrounding air into his lungs. He then shouted in an unnaturally deep voice, a shockwave issuing forth from his throat. At the same time, Shukaku retaliated, and the shrieking soprano of the giant creature clashed with the menacing baritone of the tiny boy, whipping the sand across the faces of the other warriors present. However, Shukaku's power was no match for that of the Avatar State, and he found himself hammered back by the other's breath.

Shukaku began to dash around the Avatar, expelling short gusts at the god in boy's flesh which the Avatar easily countered. However, he then summoned large spears of sand from the desert floor, which caught the Avatar by surprise. He dodged them, though one managed to score his face. Enraged, the Avatar began to wildly whip wind wherever was his whim, causing his friends no small amount of distress.

"We have to stop him!" Katara cried to Itachi as they tried to protect themselves from the ongoing battle. "He could kill us in a fight like this!"

"True," Itachi said calmly. "In this state he is more dangerous than the one tailed beast. However, the Wind Shadow is still too strong for us to take on in a fair fight."

"Perhaps it's too difficult for you!" Deidara shouted to the Uchiha as he dragged Sokka behind him through the roaring winds. "How about leaving this to me, then? I have a plan."

Meanwhile, the Avatar's body was hit by a strong attack, breaking his just healed nose again. However, the Avatar Spirit had no concern for pain. He recovered quickly and their wind streams once more clashed. The sand tanuki was devious, however, and was trying every feint it could to deceive the Avatar into letting his guard down. The two hardly noticed the blond with the broken arm circling their heads on a small clay bird.

Deidara overlooked the scene. There was Gaara, buried waste deep in the tanuki's head, swaying restfully as the beast jerked about. It was only in this restful state that the beast's full strength could be released. However, in this early stage, the young Kage could not have reached deep sleep and should thus be easily awakened. The problem was getting close enough to do that. That was where the Avatar would come in.

The tanuki released a hurricane of wind from his belly, attempting once more to overpower the Avatar. The glowing boy delivered a solid punch toward the oncoming rush, slicing a wind tunnel through it. And there it was, the Akatsuki artist realized. He dove past Aang's shoulder and flew straight into the wind tunnel, being blown through the attack by Aang's punch.

It was only as Deidara approached the beast that he realized the slight flaw in his impulsive plan. There was no way for him to slow to a halt now that he had been caught in the Avatar's powerful wind. Shrugging to himself in resignation, he angled his bird toward Gaara and leaped from his perch as it plunged itself into the tanuki's head, rolling across the sandy scalp. He looked up as he skid to a stop and saw the bird now half buried, itself, in the sand less than a foot from the sleeping Shadow. "Lucky," he said as his hands formed shaky seals, using everything he had left to set off the explosive reaction within the bird.

Gaara's protector had little time to react once the bird exploded. Debris flew everywhere, and the shockwave alone was enough to jar Gaara from his slumber. Shukaku shrieked as his jailer awoke, sealing him back within his body. Before Gaara could react, a hard, blunt object struck him in the back of the head, sending him into unconsciousness.

"Alright, boomerang!" Sokka said as he caught his returning weapon. He had just climbed up Shukaku's back and had pulled himself onto the head right when the explosive bird went off. Suddenly, the tanuki sand sculpture began rumbling as Gaara's body fell out of the forehead. "Aw, boomerang, what did you do?" Sokka chastised his weapon as the tanuki began to fall apart now that no will was holding the sand together.

Meanwhile, with no more enemies to fight, and with some soothing from Katara, the Avatar Spirit was quelled and Aang's personality returned to him. The boy collapsed, unconscious but unharmed. Itachi collected Gaara while Sokka dug himself and Deidara out of the pile of sand they had just conquered. Now it was time to take the advantage against the Fire Nation.

- - -

Naruto awoke within Sunagakure's infirmary with a horrible headache. He looked to his side and saw someone sitting next to his bed. Was that… "Zuko? What are you doing here?"

The Fire Nation prince snorted. "I don't know. It has something to do with that loud team mate of yours."

Naruto almost sprung up in bed, but his headache prevented him from fully expressing his surprise. "Sakura? She's here?"

"She was pretty shaken up when she saw what you'd managed to do to yourself," Zuko said. "Here I thought I was the only one stupid enough to get poisoned like that." He chuckled. "It took her all night to make the antidote. She didn't stop for a moment's rest until she'd administered it."

"Oh," Naruto said. "So… she's become a medic. I think I remember her mentioning something about studying with the old bag…"

Zuko looked somberly at the blond. "You're a lucky man. I could tell from the moment she saw you, she must really—"

"You're awake!"

The two young men looked toward the door to see a baggy eyed Sakura standing, obviously attempting her best to look alert. She walked over to Naruto's bed and put her hands on her hips. "Most patients would probably be out for at least another day, but I guess I should have known better than to underestimate you."

"Eh…" Naruto scratched his head in embarrassment. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Hm," Sakura said, placing her arms on the bed and leaning over the blond. "You looked much more handsome when you were unconscious, but I can still tell you've grown up a little."

"?"

"So, what do you think?" Sakura asked, standing up and posing shyly. "Do I look more like a woman, now?"

Naruto smiled goofily. "You look fine! You haven't changed at all!"

The pink haired kunoichi frowned. So he thought she still looked like a little girl, eh? "Hey, Naruto. Maybe you should try to stand up." She grabbed him by the arm and hauled him to his feet swiftly, causing the blond ninja to become rather disoriented. He stumbled forward onto Sakura before she grumpily grabbed him by the shirt collar and hoisted him up in preparation for a swift smack.

She stopped when she noticed something odd. She looked at his feet, which were still firmly on the ground. She looked up, where his face looked down on her with an expression of embarrassed bewilderment. Whoa, she thought. He has grown up. Her annoyance subsided and she smiled, releasing him. Of course she would still look like a child to him. She felt somewhat bittersweet about that.

Zuko, meanwhile, took in the display rather objectively, deciding that female shinobi were just as, if not more, insane than any other female. "Well, that's great," he said. "But I'm not going to wait around any longer. I'm going after Sasuke."

Naruto plopped back down on the bed, head still a bit loopy, especially since Sakura had decided to move him so quickly. He looked at Zuko for a moment and then back at Sakura. He had made a promise to Sakura to bring Sasuke back to her. He had also told Zuko that he would help him find Sasuke. "Right. As soon as the world stops spinning, we'll go."

"Hold it," a new voice interjected. A familiar cyclopean shinobi entered the room.

"Master Kakashi!" Naruto said. "Wow… you haven't changed a bit, either!"

Kakashi sighed. "No, I suppose not… but these are the orders from Hokage. We are to help the Sand Village in their efforts to retrieve their leader."

"What do I care about some stupid Kazekage," Naruto grunted. "Wasn't the last guy collaborating with Orochimaru, anyway?"

"N-Naruto," Sakura said hesitantly. "The current Kazekage… is Gaara."

"…"

Naruto paused to process the information. Realization slowly dawned upon the blond. "Ah… damn…" He clenched his fist and scowled. "That means that guy got to be Kage before me?! Unacceptable!"

Kakashi and Sakura's faces reflected their exasperation. "Look," Kakashi said. "Tsunade had the foresight to send a support team shortly after we left. They've arrived and are ready to help us."

They all followed the white haired jounin to another room, where two shinobi with bowl cuts and large eyebrows, one shinobi with pure white eyes, and a kunoichi with two ponytails waited. "Ah, Kakashi!" the oldest of them said. "My greatest rival! Now we go into battle together to—"

"Sorry, what was that Gai?" Kakashi asked. "I wasn't listening."

Gai fumed. "Damn Kakashi and his hip attitude…"

Two older folks were also in the room. The old lady spoke up. "Ah, so this is that Naruto that Lord Gaara spoke so highly about," she said. "I assume that now we can go to find my grandson, Sasori?"

"Almost, Grandmother Chiyo," Kakashi said. "With the antidotes Sakura derived from Naruto, we should also be protected from his poison. However, I'd like to make sure we're all in our best shape before taking on Akatsuki. We'll leave in the morning."

- - -

"What?!"

Aang's shout echoed throughout the cave that currently served as the Akatsuki's gathering place. He had just woken up, finding his friends hovering around him, figuratively speaking, while Gaara hovered quite literally meters above them amidst the hazy figures of the Akatsuki.

The boy's initial exclamation was due to the fact that he had immediately noticed Appa's absence and had asked about him. The answer that Sokka untactfully supplied was certainly not to Aang's liking. Sasori had simply "lost" his bison?

"How… why… we have to go after him!" Aang said.

"We can't just go after him," Katara explained reasonably. "The sand village has him."

"Yeah, Aang," Sokka said. "It may be for a good cause, but we did kinda help kidnap their leader. I don't think they're just gonna let us waltz in there and take our bison back."

"They'll give him back," Aang said with coldness in his voice that the two water tribe siblings were unused to hearing. "Or else I'll make them give him back."

"Now, now," Sokka said. "Let's not do anything rash."

Katara looked with annoyance at her brother. "That's not going to count for much coming from you."

Aang's eyes flashed briefly. Whether it was with simple anger or a touch of the Avatar Spirit, the siblings couldn't tell, but he was definitely not happy with the situation. "You don't understand! He's my friend, and I can't just leave him there, even if I had to fight the entire Fire Nation army." He made straight for the exit, a steely determination in his step.

"Aang," Itachi called down from a pillar overhead. "If you're going, it would be wise to use stealth. I'll accompany you."

"Wait a minute," Sokka said. "I thought you told us you couldn't leave for, like, three days while sealing the one tailed beast."

"That's true," Itachi said. "However…" A second Itachi emerged from the shadows at that point. "I can still offer you my assistance."

"Whoa!" Sokka said. "He's _twins_!"

"Idiot," Katara said, smacking her older brother lightly in the back of the head. "It's probably just a clone."

"Something like that," the Itachi standing beside Aang said. "This body only contains a percentage of my full abilities, but it's far more useful than a regular clone." He turned to Aang. "Come, Aang, I will make sure you get into Sunagakure, and we _will_ retrieve your friend."

"We… we want to help, too," Katara said, stepping forward.

"No," Itachi said. "The more of us there are, the more likely we will be seen. It's better if you stay here until we return." He smiled lightly at the girl. "Please leave Aang to me. I will protect him for you."

Katara sighed through her nose, reluctantly submitting. "Alright. Please don't get carried away, Aang."

- - -

As the sun set on the horizon, Zuko walked quietly down the empty street of Sunagakure. It wasn't that he didn't want to help Naruto. In fact, for some reason the guy, in spite of his overly sunny attitude, struck a chord in him. They shared a similar never-give-up attitude and a drive to prove themselves. But right now Zuko had more important things to accomplish than playing hero.

That Sasuke. He had messed with the wrong prince. Zuko wouldn't give up until he found him and defeated him. He needed to know for sure the fate of his uncle. If he had really died, Sasuke would pay for it with his blood. If not, he was going to take him right to Iroh, and then Zuko might consider not killing him for his mental anguish.

Right as Zuko passed the gates, a sudden gust of wind picked up and blew his earth kingdom cloak up over his head, bending him forward.

"Whoa, that really messed up your cool exit," one of the sentries commented.

The other said, "Yeah, that was really embarrassing. Maybe you got the spirit of some airbender mad at you?"

Zuko straightened the forest green cloak and scowled at the guards. He discreetly glanced about him, but decided he was being paranoid. There was no way the Avatar would be here, and certainly wouldn't be childish enough to pull such a prank on his archrival.

In the shadows, a red eyed shinobi looked curiously at the boy at his side. "That wasn't necessary."

"I know," Aang said quietly. "But for some reason when I saw him I just had the urge to blow off a little steam."

"And you did quite literally, Aang."

A slight smile played across the airbender's lips. "That's a good one."

Together, they slipped through the city, Itachi having used Sasori's secret knowledge to bypass the initial detection field and pure stealth to get around the semi-alert guards. Itachi was disappointed. It seemed that in the years since the shinobi were directly involved in the war, they really had become lax.

Meanwhile, in the stall in which Aang's six legged friend was being held, Naruto sat with the beast, occasionally tossing him small fruits as a treat. "Y'know," he said to Appa, "It's too bad about Zuko. He's a good guy, I think, but he just doesn't have his priorities straight, yet."

Appa groaned in response.

"Yeah… maybe I don't either, but that's not the point." Naruto sighed and looked into the bison's face. "I bet you miss that bald kid, don't you?"

The bison grunted.

"Right. I guess you would. I mean, he's your friend and all. I bet you'd do anything to make sure you could see him again. I feel the same way, but you're lucky. Your friend probably wants to see you just as badly as you do." Naruto looked down dejectedly. "After Sasuke decided to leave, I tried my best to convince him to come back. When that didn't work I tried to kick his ass so I could drag him back. I guess he really didn't want to, though."

Appa moaned mournfully. The blond almost felt like the bison was trying to console him.

"I dunno. Sometimes I think if he really doesn't want to see his old friends again that much, maybe I should just leave him. But then I think of her and how much it hurt her when he left. How much it hurt seeing her hurting like that. Then I know that I have to do it. I have to see Sasuke again."

Naruto stared at Appa for a long moment, and then sighed. "I know I'll probably get the death penalty if they find out, but…" he got up and walked toward the furry creature. With a quick gesture a small ball of raw spiritual energy formed in his hand, spinning frightfully. It was just enough juice to break those chains, and if he did it right, they might just suspect Appa broke them himself.

Before he could implement his plan, however, he was suddenly blown off his feet by a sudden gust of wind. There was no way that was natural, he thought to himself. Not in an enclosed place like this. Could it be wind ninjutsu? If it was, he hoped it wasn't Temari or Baki who had stumbled upon him.

"Get your hands off my bison!" he heard someone cry. Oh, good. That sounded like it was probably airbending. That was a much better alternative.

Naruto sprang back to his feet and put his hands in the air. "Whoa, baldy. Wait a sec."

"You took him," Aang said harshly. "How dare you?" He dashed toward Naruto, brandishing his staff.

Naruto readied himself to fight, but suddenly his vision was obscured by a blur of cherry blossoms. He heard a thunk, then a short cry from Aang, followed almost immediately by a loud crash from the back wall. The cherry blossoms were then swept away as Sakura's face looked back toward him.

"You idiot," she said. "Just like you to make trouble like this."

"Ah…" Naruto said sheepishly. "I guess. But what were you doing so close by, anyway?"

"Not listening in, if that's what you think," Sakura said, her cheeks reddening a little.

Aang rose from where he had been rather violently punched, clutching his broken nose. That was the second time his nose had been broken. Now this girl was standing between him and Appa. He could hear the commotion Appa was making, too, crying out for him to help.

"Aang," Itachi said quietly to the boy. "Calm yourself. Going into the Avatar State now would only make things more difficult!"

He was right. It definitely would be no good with Appa so close by. Besides, he didn't want to go into the Avatar State if it could be helped. As Avatar Roku had told him when he had first arrived back in the Earth Kingdom after the siege at the North Pole, it was purely meant as a defense mechanism, and was dangerous to abuse. He settled his anger and readied himself to fight again.

Naruto, however, had already run over to Appa, and was breaking the chains with his rasengan.

"What are you doing?" Sakura asked.

"What do we need with a flying bison?" Naruto asked. "We might as well let him go, anyway." He looked back at Aang, who was now staring at him in disbelief. "Hey, listen," he said. "I don't want to keep you from getting your friend back. Now come get him."

Sakura sighed, but then grabbed a chain for herself and used her considerable strength to break it. It was the first time Naruto had seen her use this power, and she forgave him for gawking this time. As Aang cautiously approached, Sakura stopped him. "Wait," she said, taking off one of her gloves. She focused her chakra energy in her hands and touched his nose. "This is going to sting a second, but then it'll feel better." She cracked his nose back into place and used her healing energy to repair the damage.

"Just like Katara…" Aang realized.

"Now get going," Sakura urged.

Aang jumped onto Appa and looked back at the two shinobi. "Thanks," he said. "Come on, Appa," he told his bison, and the beast lurched toward the exit. He had just made it out the door, when he suddenly noticed that he was surrounded by shinobi. Apparently, that loud crash from before had not been subtle enough.

Kakashi was among the shinobi, and his sharingan was uncovered and actively searching the area. "Itachi," he said quietly, realizing that the Uchiha was hiding in the shadows. "Alright, we have Akatsuki infiltrating Sunagakure," he informed the other shinobi. "Everyone knows what to do."

Aang gulped. "Uh, oh."


	13. River Country

**Elements of War**

**Chapter 12  
River Country**

Two sand shinobi converged on Aang at once. Before they were able to execute a complete ninjutsu spell, however, Aang hammered them both in the gut with dual airbending strikes. Four other shinobi, plus the white haired one were already advancing, however.

Itachi's body seemed to form from the shadows, and he knocked two of the chuunin unconscious. However, Kakashi was already moving to intercept, leaving the bald monk to the others. The Uchiha evaded the first of the jounin's attacks, knowing better than to try to fight the man head on right away.

Naruto and Sakura looked on as the scene unfolding before them with some trepidation. Naruto was hesitant about attacking the kid he'd just let go, though on the other hand, he was no friend of Itachi's. Sakura moved her shoulder in front of Naruto, though, and told him firmly, "You're not going out there."

"It's no problem. I've been able to fight him off before..."

"I don't care about that," Sakura said. "Master Jiraiya told us about it..."

Naruto looked to the side, his expression serious. "I see."

"I'm not going to let you risk being captured. Old lady Chiyo told us what would happen if it was extracted…" She looked back at him then, and Naruto could see her eyes shining, and her voice broke with emotion.

"Eh... yeah..."

Aang urged Appa forward through the throng of ninja, blowing them out of his way. "Appa! Yip, yip," he said, and the bison began to rise into the air. However, several shinobi tossed grappling lines at the beast, and ensnared his legs. Appa was strong, though, and managed to make forward movement though he could do no more than drag the ninja along the ground.

Some of the ninja holding Appa back soon found poles and heavy objects to wrap their lines around, and they suddenly stopped the bison in his metaphorical tracks. Tying the lines down, some of them began to sprint up the ropes to reach the Avatar.

Flames danced around Itachi and Kakashi as they fought. Kakashi's fire and lightning ninjutsu were executed with deadly force, though the younger shinobi was swift, dodging the attacks. Kakashi moved in to engage his enemy with his fists.

Itachi's eyes shifted, pupils becoming like a kaleidoscope, and Kakashi's gaze instantly dropped. He drew on his experience sparring with Gai to predict Itachi's movements without falling prey to the mangekyo sharingan's illusionary abilities. However, it was not Kakashi who was the intended target.

Some of the shinobi gathered around Aang had unfortunately been so foolish as to look in the direction of the two elite ninja's direction. One made direct eye contact with the Uchiha, and seconds later convulsed, falling to the ground unconscious. As the young man weaved in and out of the older instructor's attacks, one by one he made eye contact with those pursuing Aang, and they fell until only a few were left.

Kakashi realized what was going on quickly. With a series of hand signs, Kakashi split the chakra energy in his body and focused in into his fingers. Upon completing the sequence, he slid his fingers apart and called, "Itachi!"

The Uchiha's first instinct upon coming out of his latest genjutsu was, naturally, to look at Kakashi. At that very moment an electric arc sparked between Kakashi's fingers, creating a blinding light which caused Itachi to blink.

Itachi felt himself being pushed back a moment later, presumably out of range of Aang's attackers. He could feel Kakashi rearing back for an attack, and he managed to block it, albeit more clumsily than he would have otherwise. The spots were clearing from his vision, however, and he could now see his adversary. He grappled with the man for a moment before unsheathing a kunai and stabbing it into Kakashi's gut.

The Uchiha's eyes saw the surge of energy moments before anything unusual was visible to the naked eye. Kakashi's body dissolved and lightning crackled around Itachi, a large bolt of power entering his body through his kunai and up his arm. Acting quickly, the young man tried to direct the flow of power toward his stomach. The attack came on such short notice, however, that he found himself only able to reroute it a short difference, and he could feel the burning in his chest. The electricity ran up his other arm, then, and he let it loose from his body.

The lightning from Itachi's hand struck another figure that had leaped out from the shadows, a blade of lightning enveloping its hand. The bolt of lightning that came from Kakashi's lightning clone crashed into this Kakashi, throwing him back. His body, as well, dissolved and electricity poured into the ground.

Itachi wheezed, coughing up flecks of charred lung. He had to move fast, though. He raced back toward Aang, finding that more shinobi of the sand had joined to bring the air bison down. Before he could join the battle, though, a pink haired kunoichi appeared before him and struck at him. He dodged her attacks and flipped over her, tossing shuriken toward Appa with precision. As he landed, he felt a beastly force strike the back of his head, and his body tumbled across the sandy ground, kicking up a shroud of dust.

Appa suddenly found himself able to rise again, the shuriken having severed the lines that bound him perfectly. He and his young monk flew into the air, with Aang driving off the last of the pursuers with powerful gale winds, but the boy didn't want to leave just yet.

"Itachi!" he yelped as he steered Appa toward the injured Akatsuki member.

"Go, Aang!" he said as he rose to his feet.

"I can't just leave you!"

"You aren't, Aang," Itachi said. "Remember what I said before. I'm in no danger. I'll hold them off."

Aang nodded. This was just some kind of clone, like the blond airbender had used. He looked toward that same airbender before he turned Appa around to leave. The boy standing aside for now, but he could tell he was anxious to join in. For a brief moment, he hoped that one day he would be able to show that guy how to do the air scooter. Now wasn't the time, however. He turned Appa around and left the scene.

"Now, then..." Itachi said to himself. Sakura was approaching again, quickly. He could see that she had incredible control of her energy flow, being able to maximize the efficiency of her work, much like the legendary slug kunoichi. A very dangerous opponent.

Sakura executed a series of jabs and crosses that Itachi weaved around. One punch nearly struck him, though, leaving a scrape across his cheek. At that point, he seized her arm and tossed her to the side.

"Sakura!" a voice called out. Itachi turned and saw Naruto moving toward him with clones trailing him as they worked together to create a huge sphere of spiraling chakra energy. The Uchiha moved to dodge, but he suddenly found his feet held to the ground. A pair of familiar hands seemed to have grown from the earth and now grasped him by his ankles.

"So, that's where you went, Kakashi?" Itachi asked softly, just before being struck, his ribs snapping and his internal organs twisting inside him. The hands let go of him and he was set free to spin through the air and land several meters away.

"Oodama rasengan," Naruto announced.

Kakashi emerged from the sand and stood beside Naruto. "Don't let your guard down, yet," he advised.

As he said it, Itachi's crumpled form dispersed in a cloud of smoke, and in the same instant twin ropes wrapped themselves around the two Konoha ninja. They turned around and saw Itachi, his black cloak hanging loosely about his shoulders and blowing in the wind, standing among unconscious or dazed Suna ninja. "I hope that's not all you had, Senior," he said. "I thought you always thought seven moves ahead."

Sakura stepped in front of the two. "You won't come one step closer," she said firmly. "I can stop you."

"Perhaps," Itachi said. "You are powerful, and in this state I am weaker than normal. However..." his foot began to move forward. "I don't..." He paused. "Don't..." His face looked slightly confused. "What?"

"It's a full moon, tonight," a voice said from behind him. "Normally, it's impossible to use human puppetry on a person with the will to resist. However, when the moon is full... the power of a puppet master grows."

Itachi collapsed to his knees, and the shinobi from Konoha saw the short old woman, Chiyo. Her fingers were splayed in front of her and her body was rigid as she held him down. "Ah... I see. So this is the power of human puppetry?"

Chiyo sneered and curled her fingers into a gnarled claw. "It is… though my grandson's power is even more substantial. I would have thought you would know about your own comrade."

"I've never had the pleasure of seeing him fight all out, I'm afraid," Itachi said, wincing as he felt his insides being violated by this woman's power.

"Tell me where little Sasori is, won't you? He hasn't visited his poor grandmother in a long time…"

"I'm afraid that would be disloyal on my part," Itachi said. "I couldn't betray my comrades by telling you."

"That's an ironic statement," Kakashi said coolly.

"You're sure you can't be persuaded?" Chiyo asked, curling her fingers more, causing Itachi to cough and gag momentarily. "It would do an old lady's heart good to see her grandson one last time before she died."

"Well, then," Itachi said. "I suppose you'll have to wait for him to write."

Chiyo snorted, and after a moment she clenched her hand into a fist, and Itachi straightened for a moment, blood spilling from his mouth. Then he collapsed, his heart and lungs crushed. "I suppose we have what we need, then."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked. "He didn't tell us what he wanted. You should have kept him alive so we could interrogate him or something, right?"

"It wouldn't have done any good," Chiyo said. She walked over to the Akatsuki and turned him over. "See? It's nothing more than a decoy." Itachi's face seemed to have changed completely. "This guy was already dead, and any attempts to interrogate him… feh… it would have been pointless." She rummaged through his cloak. "However, we did get something."

"Eh?" Naruto asked. "What's that?"

"It seems," Chiyo said as she pulled out a scroll. "My grandson must have written, after all."

- - -

The nine spirit dragons continued to swirl around Gaara's body as they continued their extraction of the one tailed beast. Every time he looked at it, Aang became very nervous, as if something very wrong were happening. Then again, wasn't it that any evil spirit possessing a human was wrong? Maybe that was all that feeling meant.

Regardless, Aang had returned with his air bison and friend, and he was happy to see Itachi still healthy among the other Daybreak members. "Well," Itachi said, "I was given a rude shock when my double was killed. Like the shadow clone technique, the shouten no jutsu delivers all the information back to the original upon its dispersal."

"They killed you…" Aang said softly. "I can't believe it. They're supposed to be the descendants of the Air Nomads, but no Air Nomad would kill anyone."

Itachi laughed. "Some may be descendants of your people, but make no mistake that they are no Air Nomads. They are shinobi, and shinobi are meant to be tools for killing. That is why the leader became Wind Shadow instead of Air Shadow. The air is calm and passive, but the wind is strong and can be deadly. This is their distinction."

"I see."

"Unfortunately," Pein said from upon his rock spire. "It seems as if the shinobi are following you directly to our base. You were careless in your retreat." Aang wondered about Pein's apparent change in mannerism. It was slight, but he definitely wasn't as laid back as he had sounded in the swamp. Perhaps it was just the stress of the situation, though. On top of that, though, Pein's silhouette—for that was all Aang could make out of his insubstantial projection—looked taller and leaner. If not for the eyes and the obvious show of respect the others gave to this man, Aang wouldn't have known it was him.

"I'm sorry," Aang said. "I didn't know."

"It's all right, Aang," Itachi said. "We'll take care of this. We only need to delay them long enough to complete the extraction. Unimpeded they would only arrive a few hours before, so we should be able to manage it."

"I'll be the one going," Kisame said. Actually, in this case, it was his double that came out of the shadows just then. "Might Guy is with them. I have a score to settle from earlier."

"Just you?" Aang asked. "How many are coming?"

"Our sources say it is the two teams from Konoha of the Fire Nation that are pursuing you," Pein stated. "One four-man team and one three-man team, as well as the legendary Toad Sage and one old kunoichi from the village of sand."

"There's no way you can fight all nine of them, is there?" Katara said. "Especially if just one is enough to be your rival."

"True enough," Kisame said. "I would like it if I could take him on one-on-one. However, Master Pein can't just make these new bodies so easily. This is the only one readily available right now."

"Don't worry!" Sokka cut in dramatically. "We'll stand at your side, ready to kick serious ninja butt!" He brandished his club eagerly.

Kisame laughed. "I like you, kid. You really have spunk. Yeah, we'll throw a boomerang at them. I'm sure after years of dodging tiny shuriken, they'll never see it coming!"

"I'll come," Katara said. "It won't be any problem for me."

Kisame scowled. "It will be dangerous, you know."

"I've seen worse danger," Katara responded. "I've been trained by Master Pakku and the Mizukage. I know I can help."

Kisame grinned toothily. "I suppose if the Mizukage has vouched for your abilities by giving you that scroll, then I'm in no position to argue your value."

"Hey, come on!" Sokka complained. "I can fight, too! Please!"

The blue-skinned shinobi looked sternly at the boy. "No way."

"Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease—" Sokka said, rapidly grating on the Akatsuki's nerves.

"Alright, you can come!" he finally conceded. "But I'd better not see any of those goofy intro poses you've been practicing or I'm going to knock you on the head with samehade."

"You got it, boss!"

Aang looked firmly at them. "I should be going, too."

"No, Aang," Itachi said. "You have to let them handle this, for now. I can assure you Kisame will let no harm come to them. You are needed here in case they do come before the ritual is complete."

"Aang, listen to him," Katara reassured him. "We'll be just fine. You'll be most effective as our trump card, but hopefully you won't even have to fight."

Aang sighed. "Alright, Katara. But… just be careful. They might not hold back."

"I understand," Katara said, embracing him tightly.

"Momo, you stay here," Sokka was telling the small lemur at that time, who had decided it, was rather comfortable on the boy's head. "No, Momo, you can't fight the scary assassin guys."

- - -

A cloaked figure approached the desk of the surly looking old woman. "I need to get across this river," he said to her.

"Passport," she said.

"I… don't have a passport. But I have more than enough money to…"

"No passport, no ticket," she said stubbornly. "Next."

The young man scoffed. It was just his luck. He had already found clues that indicated his quarry had crossed the river, so he had thought maybe the universe was stacking the tiles in his favor for once. However, to be stopped so easily just because he was without a passport… if only he knew someone who could forge some documents for him. He wondered if his uncle would have been able to take care of this if he were around. "There's no way you could make an exception?" he asked, holding up a bag of gold.

"No exceptions!" she shouted. "If I just gave away tickets willy-nilly to anyone, there would be no more order, and you know what that means. No more civilization!" She took a deep breath and bellowed "Next!" at which point the young man sighed and turned to leave.

Apparently he would have to find some other way across. Or, perhaps, he could find some inobservant traveler and pilfer a passport. His eyes scanned the dimly lit cavern. There was a couple that would be easy pickings. They had left their bag right on the ground and weren't paying the least bit of attention. Someone could just walk right up and take it from under their noses. He shook his head. He couldn't do that. They looked poor, and the woman was pregnant. In fact, he could have sworn they looked familiar, somehow.

His eyes narrowed as he suddenly saw a hunched figure saunter casually up behind the couple and crouched smoothly. As he walked away, Zuko could see that he had taken the bag with him. Apparently, someone else had had the same idea as he had. The young man's body began to move forward before he had even made up his mind to intervene, and he was soon in a full run.

"Hold it!" he said as he came up on the man. The thief turned just after Zuko had leaped into the air, twisting himself around and landing on the other side of the man. The crook turned back to him just in time to receive a strong punch between the eyes. He crumpled to the ground.

"Oh, thank goodness!" the pregnant woman gushed as she and her husband hurried toward the young man. "Our passports were in there."

Zuko handed the bag over to the man, whose name was Tahn. "It was no problem."

"I wish there were some way to repay you," Tahn said.

"There is one way," Zuko responded. "Tell me… is there any alternate route across this river."

Tahn thought for a moment, but his expression was bleak. "I'm afraid there is no other safe way to Ba Sing Se."

"I'm not concerned with safety," Zuko said. "Just getting there."

"Surely you can't be that desperate," the woman said. "You'd have no hope of getting through the Serpent's Pass!"

"Ying!" Tahn said.

"There's one thing I'll never give up," Zuko said. "Hope. Please tell me. How do I get to the Serpent's Pass?"

The couple exchanged a worried glance.

- - -

Katara looked down on the thin strip of land that connected the bank closest to Ba Sing Se with the western Earth Kingdom lands. "So this is Serpent's Pass?" she asked. "From up here it looks like the path is submerged for a time in the middle."

"That's right," Kisame said. "It's the most dangerous way to Ba Sing Se, but also the quickest. They'll come through here."

"It doesn't look so dangerous. The river's not even moving that fast," Sokka said. "I could swim that in a heartbeat."

"It would be fine if you could avoid any beats of your heart, altogether," Kisame said. "The serpent of Serpent's Pass is quite an adept hunter, and could snap you up easily."

"Wait…" Sokka paused. "Serpent?"

Kakashi and Gai's respective teams arrived presently with their guide, Chiyo. "We need to get into single file line while crossing this river," Kakashi said to the others.

"Why don't we just walk across the water?" Naruto said plaintively.

"Well, for one," Kakashi said, "There's no need to waste our energy water-walking when we can just walk normally across plain earth. For another reason…"

"There just so happens to be a giant sea serpent living in this river," Chiyo finished. "If you were to disturb the surface of the water, it would surely sense you, and it has no trouble making a light snack out of humans."

"Gotcha," Naruto said, and they all began to make their way across the narrow path at a light jog. Soon they came upon the point in which the Serpent's Pass descended into the river. "Well, it looks like we'll have to go across after—"

"If I cannot jump across," Gai's protégé, Rock Lee announced as he bounded over their heads to the front of the line. "Then Sakura shall never want to date me!"

_The Hell? _Sakura thought. _That has nothing to do with my not wanting to date you. Shave the brows and we'll talk._

Rock Lee landed in front of Kakashi and then leaped again, soaring over the river with his limbs outstretched like a flying squirrel-bat. He landed deftly, just centimeters from the river's far edge. He turned and gave his friends a cheerful thumbs up, shouting "I did it!"

"I hope he doesn't expect anything from me," Sakura said under her breath.

"Don't worry," the fuzzy browed shinobi's teammate, Tenten, assured her. "He's probably already forgotten about that."

"As much as I hate to admit it," Lee's other teammate, the white eyed Neji, said, "I don't think there's any way I could jump that distance."

"Ehh," Naruto said. "I don't know if I could either. Fuzzy brow's got us beat when it comes to the long jump."

"There's no need to worry," Gai said in his usual dramatically loud fashion. He bent down and laced his fingers together, lowering them with palms facing up. "Trebuchet!"

"No way," his students said simultaneously.

"Let's go!" Naruto, on the other hand, said with excitement as he ran toward Gai. He stepped into the man's hands and leaped at the same time the taijutsu expert gave a mighty heave, and he was tossed right over the river. It was all very impressive looking until the boy landed with a thud on his head when he reached the other bank. "I'm okay," he shouted back to them with a noticeable waver in his voice.

"I'm definitely not doing that," Sakura said.

"It's alright," Kakashi said. "I can jump that easily, even with a passenger. Climb on my back."

Sakura looked pensive, but it was certainly better to piggyback than to be tossed across. "Okay," she said as she put her arms around his neck. She suddenly felt additional weight added to her back. Turning her head, she saw the old woman's scary face. "Ack!"

"Don't worry," Chiyo said. "I don't weigh much, so it shouldn't be a problem if I go along, right?"

"Well," Kakashi said. "I don't suppose so. As long as you don't mistake me for my father in mid-jump." His reference to their first meeting not long ago, when she had thought he was White Fang, one of her old enemies, caused her to look sheepish.

"I can't promise anything, but I'll try not to go too senile," she said.

"Move back, please," Kakashi said to the others, and, when they obliged, he gave himself a running start. Before he took off, he focused his energy with a handseal, feeling his spirit flowing through his chakras freely in that moment, allowing him to open the first gate that would allow some of his hidden strength to be utilized freely. He seemed to blast off from the earth and soared in an even more graceful manner than Lee had, especially given his load. However, he seemed to be coming down a little too sharply.

"Uh, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said. "I don't know if we're going to make it…"

"Kakashi-kun may not make it," the old lady said, leaping off Sakura's back and toward the land. "But I certainly will."

"Hey!" Sakura shouted angrily.

"No, Sakura," Kakashi said quickly. "You need to jump, too. I'll manage."

"Yes, sensei," Sakura said, and she leaped off Kakashi's shoulders.

The older man wondered exactly how he was going to manage it for a moment, but he suddenly realized he wouldn't have to as a familiar pair of hands grabbed his arm moments before he hit the water. Naruto, being flung about by a chain of shadow clones, pulled him to land before he could tip off the serpent.

"Alright, students!" Gai said. "I won't be outdone by Kakashi. Hop on!"

"That's even less likely to happen than trebucheting," Tenten asserted. She suddenly noticed something odd in the river. It almost looked like a shark's fin. "Wait, sensei. What is that? Could it be the serpent?"

Gai looked and saw the protrusion. "Hmm… no, I think this might be something worse."

The "fin" reached shore, and with a crashing of water and rock, its true identity was revealed. It was the samehade, wielded by Kisame. Katara was at his side, bending the water around them away.

"You are…" Gai said.

"You know this man, sensei?" Neji asked.

"Who are you?"

Gai's two students looked at him incredulously. Why make such a big deal if he didn't know who this was, anyway?

"Ah, it looks as if the "Bizarre Beast" is as dumb as one, too," Kisame said cockily. "Well, at any rate, I'd better refresh your memory."

Neji activated his byakugan, veins bulging to allow more blood flow to his optics. He could see massive power running through this man's body. "I've never seen such power since Naruto," he said.

"This," Kisame said. "This is Akatsuki." He threw his weapon into the air and performed a number of rapid hand seals. At the same time, Katara also performed the same, and twin bulges of water formed in the river behind them. The water seemed to explode around them, engulfing the combatants.

"Whoa!" Naruto said. "We have to help them!"

Rock Lee shook his head. "No… this is a distraction. Let Team Gai handle this. You should continue on to rescue Gaara." He turned to Naruto with determined eyes. "Please, I do not wish to see harm come to Gaara any more than you do."

"I…" Naruto began.

"Hold it!" a voice called out. "First you'll have to take on me!" Sokka leaped out from behind a boulder and tossed his boomerang at Lee. The young taijutsu master moved his head, casually avoiding the blow. Unfortunately, Naruto who was behind Lee and considerably less quick on the draw, was hit square in the face with it.

"Augh!" Naruto cried out, falling to the ground holding his head in pain. "That hurt!"

Sokka gave a loud battle cry and drew his club, waving it at Lee menacingly. "You're going down, Fire Nation!" He swung at the Konoha shinobi, who caught it easily and then gave him a hard punch to the face.

"Hm," Lee said to himself. "If this is Akatsuki, then we will join you shortly. Don't worry."

"Thank you, Lee," Kakashi said, pulling Naruto, who was still rubbing his head and glaring at Sokka crankily, to his feet. "We'll see you soon."

With that, Team Kakashi was off, leaving Lee to face Sokka, who was now rising to his feet, alone. The green clad shinobi from the Land of Fire felt some pity for the water tribe boy. "I'm not giving up!" Sokka said. "I'm the greatest warrior from the Southern Water Tribe!"

"I'm very sorry," Rock Lee said. "That your village is in such dire straits, then."

"Gaah, shut up!" Sokka said, grabbing his club and striking at Lee, who leaped over him so quickly it seemed to the young man that he had disappeared. He heard him land behind him, though, and so swung in that direction, only to find it had been dodged, again. This continued for some time, with Sokka's swinging becoming more frantic as he tried to keep up.

Rock Lee watched from a short distance away as Sokka kept flailing uselessly with his club. "Amazing. He hasn't even noticed I've gone," Lee said. "I have to admire his enthusiasm, though."

Higher up, in what had become a virtual tsunami, Kisame and Katara fought the other three members of Team Gai, with the shark faced shinobi paying particular attention to his rival. "That aquatic ninjutsu and that huge sword," Gai pondered. "You must be…"

"It looks like you finally remembered," Kisame said smugly.

"Someone I've met before."

"You really have a talent for getting on people's nerves," Kisame retorted. "I suppose I'll toy with you until you remember."

Katara, meanwhile, was using her waterbending and water ninjutsu to the best of her abilities to guard against Tenten's summoned weaponry. Neji was also trying to get a little too close, but she was doing well keeping him away. That is, until he used a strange technique, in which he thrust his palm toward her and suddenly a palm-shaped hole appeared in her shield of water and it seemed that, for a moment, all the air in her lungs had left her and she couldn't breathe. Was this some kind of waterbending?

At this point, they had ridden the tsunami until the water had mostly settled back into the river. Neji had almost reached Katara when she decided that she was going to use the fact that they were standing on water to her advantage. She thrust her hand down, and suddenly Neji found himself being sucked down to the river bed.

"Neji!" Tenten shouted with a touch of anger in her voice. She began to unroll several scrolls, tossing them around Katara, surrounding her with paper. The ends of the scrolls she marked with her blood and the symbols began to glow.

Katara performed the gestures for an advanced triple water shield, and then blew mist onto her inner shield, freezing it into ice. Tenten's scrolls released their weapons, which rained down on the spheres of water with force enough to allow many to blast right through the first two shields. When it was all over, Katara shivered to think that some of those blades had come close to stabbing her right where it would hurt.

The distraction, meanwhile, had allowed Neji to get back to the surface, and he rejoined Tenten in a combined effort to defeat the waterbender.

Back on the shore, Sokka had finally discovered that Lee was no longer within striking distance when the latter nudged the former to the ground from behind. "And what kind of magic powers are you supposed to have, anyway?" Sokka growled. "Some kind of mystical ninja super speed?"

"Well, there is something like that," Lee admitted. "But I can't really use much more than my own body. I'm not a bender, and I can't even use my chakra energy to do ninjutsu or genjutsu. I'm as normal as you in that regard."

"There's no way a normal person could dodge me like that," Sokka said.

Lee smiled. "It's hard work," he said. "If you put your entire heart into training, even someone like you could do this."

"Someone like me…" Sokka said under his breath. "That's… real nice." He suddenly leaped at Lee again, this time dropping his club and punching at him bare fisted. "I'll… show… you… what… kind… of… guy… I… am!" he said, pausing for each thrust, though he was easily parried.

Lee, again feeling a bit sorry for the young man, fought only just above the boy's level, prolonging the fight. Perhaps this boy was an Akatsuki-in-training he thought. Maybe the other Akatsuki made fun of him and didn't think he could ever be anything but the token normal guy. He sympathized. "Do not worry," he said as he socked the other boy in the jaw. "With the power of youth, no one will mock you ever again, and you will become a splendid warrior!" The comment indeed seemed to light the youthful flame of Sokka's heart, as his blows suddenly became harder, faster, and stronger.

Gai, meanwhile, had liberated Kisame's blade from him. "Now I'll defeat you," he said. Suddenly, though, sharp teeth sprouted from the hilt, piercing Gai's hands and forcing him to let go.

Kisame caught the blade as it soared to him. "I'm afraid the samehade recognizes only me," he said. "Now I will be the one to defeat you. Your kung fu is not so strong."

Gai could see now that his position was perilous. He took out his nunchaku and prepared for the final exchange.

A short distance away, Tenten pierced the skull of Katara with a barrage of kunai. Katara's body suddenly dissolved into water, and then Tenten found herself on the end of an all out assault of water whips which rendered her unconscious. She was tossed to the bank.

Now Katara was face to face with Neji. He came at her, his vacuum palm technique driving her back and rendering her normal defenses useless while his hakkeshou kaiten technique, by which he spun about rapidly and poured chakra energy from every pore on his body, defended him against her attacks. She managed to hinder him, though, with attacks from below. She would grab his legs with water tentacles and spouts of water would hit him in the jaw, dazing him. Finally, she managed to daze him enough that she was able to fire off water fangs in rapid succession without him able to defend against them. He was battered greatly, though he seemed unwilling to give up.

The Hyuuga backed up to the shore, where he couldn't be attacked from below, and pondered what he would do to defeat her. She would not be driven to land, and he couldn't beat her with long range attacks. He was mainly a taijutsu fighter, and the only long range technique he knew was too inefficient to be used as his main offense.

Suddenly, a loud roar was heard as something emerged from the river. Something big. As Chiyo had said, there was a giant serpent that hunted Serpent's Pass, and it was no surprise that such a fight on its waters had attracted it. The important thing was that Katara had been distracted. Neji could use this moment. He dashed across the water's surface at full speed. If he could get within arm's reach of her, she would have no chance.

Katara, however, saw him coming a little too soon. He couldn't give up, though. He tensed as he saw her bringing her arm about to attack, but suddenly a rope tied itself from behind to the girl's arm. Neji's byakugan could see that Tenten had apparently not been out long. Neji's fingers intercepted her other arm as it came up, and suddenly the flow of energy was stopped and the water that had been rising to her call sloshed back down. His fingers soon found the tenketsu all around her body and sealed them, effectively paralyzing her. She sank into the river, but Neji grabbed her by her braid before her head went underwater.

"Since you didn't let Tenten drown," Neji said. "I'll return the favor." He swung Katara around by the hair, to which she loudly protested, and tossed her to shore. He then turned his piercing white eyes to see his master and the Akatsuki engaged in a three way fight with each other and the serpent. He could see that Gai had released a few gates to compensate.

The serpent momentarily dove under the waters again, but when it came back up, it did so like a snake, and snapped up the two shinobi in its mouth. Neji panicked for a moment and ran toward the creature, intent on forcing it to spit them out if he had to, but he then saw the creature's head begin to jolt back and forth as if it were having some kind of seizure, and water sprayed oddly from between its teeth. Seeing through its flesh and bone, he could observe the two shinobi continuing to fight within the beast's skull.

Finally, water sprayed for a moment from all orifices in the serpent's head, and its mouth was forced open by a powerful water jutsu that issued forth what had to be all the liquid stored in the beast's body. It created a cloud like a mushroom, though Neji knew that this particular fungi would not be such a friendly place.

"Tenten!" he shouted. "Lee!" He ran to the bank where his two teammates were. Rock Lee still seemed to be fighting one of the Akatsuki, and Neji wondered briefly if such a scrawny looking kid could have really been strong enough to stand up to Rock Lee's fists, but he was soon assured that he wasn't when the kid suddenly collapsed when he saw the two of them coming. "Master Gai is in trouble."

As the water dissipated into mist, the others could see that their master had been hit hard with Kisame's sword, and Gai looked rather prone upon it. Unknown to them, the samehade was even now absorbing Gai's vital energy, weakening him the more he remained in contact with it.

"Trebuchet!" Tenten said.

"No way," Neji said automatically.

"No, I mean," she pulled out a scroll and wiped her blood on it. It erupted in smoke, summoning a large, familiar machine. "Trebuchet."

"Understood," Neji replied, and he and Rock Lee jumped into the sling. Tenten released the arm and the two shinobi were flung right at the two airborne men.

In the air, Kisame raised his sword for a final downstroke, but it was suddenly interrupted by a crosskick from Lee. Neji moved his teacher away and proceeded to work the Akatsuki over with his midair eight divination signs: one hundred twenty eight palm technique. Once he had completed sealing the tenketsu of the Akatsuki, Lee followed up with a devastating flurry of punches and kicks which crushed the man's bones just as Neji had crushed his internal systems. He finished it off with a powerful kick to speed the man the rest of the way to the ground.

Tenten managed to catch her three falling teammates with a quickly summoned a giant cushion. "Whew," she said. "Here I never thought I'd get a chance to use either the trebuchet or this thing, and here I've had to use them both on one mission!"

"Umf," Gai said as he wearily sat up. "Did any of you get the name of that guy?"


	14. Human Sacrifice

**Elements of War**

**Chapter 13  
Human Sacrifice**

Aang gazed into the swirling sphere of dragon spirits. The ghostly beings entered and exited his body in a lazy process of ripping the massive evil beast from the Kazekage's body. "Is he… really going to be okay?" Aang asked.

Itachi looked down from the stone spire at the young monk. He would figure it out soon, he knew. The process of removing the Ichibi would kill Gaara, and Aang would have helped to do it. "Aang, I…"

"I've been incapacitated," one of the shadowy Akatsuki said. He looked very odd as his head seemed to be some kind of flytrap plant to Aang.

"What's this?" Pein asked.

"I was suspicious when I did not see Jiraiya at the Serpent's Pass. He must have separated from the group. I was ambushed and trapped… I believe within a toad. I should be able to survive for now, but I cannot break free without severing my link."

"This is unfortunate," Pein said. "We will be unable to prepare properly for our guests."

"It should be little problem," Itachi said. "The cave is sealed with a barrier that is unbreakable from the outside. By the time the agents of Konoha and the old woman, Chiyo, are able to undo the barrier, even assuming they figure out how immediately, we will have already completed extraction and Gaara will no longer be a concern for anyone."

"He won't 'be a concern for anyone?'" Aang repeated. What did that mean, he thought to himself. It almost sounded ominous.

"Of course," Itachi said. "Little Deidara and Sasori may have to deal with the consequences. I imagine the shinobi will be rather irate when they find out what we've done to the Kazekage."

"Itachi!" Pein chastised his subordinate. "That's enough."

"Wait," Aang said. "What do you mean by this? They... they wouldn't be angry just because we took the beast out, would they? You said, yourself, that these... 'jinchuriki' were dangerous, even to those they loved. Wouldn't they be happy to get rid of it?"

Sasori answered for Itachi this time. "As a matter of fact, most of the sand village was eager to get rid of the Ichibi for some time. My own grandmother, Chiyo, was the person who sealed the beast inside Gaara, from what my spies tell me. She also knows a technique to unseal it, much like our own."

"So... why didn't they use it?"

Pein chose to remain silent at this point. Apparently his Akatsuki had unilaterally decided to let Aang in on their secret. It was really no problem at this point, though. The Avatar would have found out soon, anyway. In fact, it could be better this way.

"There were several reasons," Sasori said. "At first they had hoped to use him as a weapon. By the time they realized his dangerous tendencies, it was too late. His father tried to have him captured so they could take out the beast, but Gaara was too powerful at that point. There was no way the boy would just let it be taken out, besides. After all, the only way to remove a tailed beast... involves killing the host."

"'Killing?'" Aang said. He felt a cold ball forming in his gut. "What... what are you saying? You're going to kill this guy just to get his power?"

Itachi was silent for a moment, as if pensive. "He will die. However, what is the death of one person weighed against the salvation of the entire world?"

"I believe that every life is precious!" Aang said. "You can't just put a price on each individual life like that. One person is just as important as a million."

"Is that so?" Itachi said. "Perhaps you're right, but would you let one person continue living when you knew that it would mean the destruction of everything you stand for? Is it not your duty to protect the balance of the world at any cost?"

"Well... yes," Aang said. "It is my duty to keep the balance... but wouldn't killing someone put the world out of balance anyway?"

Itachi was silent for another moment. "What do you plan to do with the Fire Lord, Aang? When you fight him, even if you manage to defeat him, he won't just allow you to walk away. He will fight you to his last breath as long as fire still flows through his veins."

Aang didn't know quite what to say. He knew he was destined to defeat the Fire Lord. Would he really be able to kill the man? He hadn't really even thought of it, before. Ozai was like a distant boogie man that he could simply destroy and not worry about his humanity. But he was human, wasn't he? "I... don't know. But maybe I _can_ defeat him without having to kill him. Either way, it's different in this case. This is an innocent man you're killing!"

"Innocent?" Itachi asked. "Really? This man has, in fact, killed more men than I. Not only that, he didn't kill them for duty or survival as I have. He did it for his own self-satisfaction. He wanted to kill, and he did so without provocation! Is this innocence? Even aside from the danger he represents due to the evil spirit inside him, he is still a murderer."

Aang felt torn. If this man was as dangerous as Itachi said, it was certainly reasonable to take away his power. However, to kill him or allow him to die went against his entire world view.

"Remember what I told you," Pein said to him. "Death is an illusion. The Kazekage will remain even after his physical body ceases to function. Ensuring peace is your duty as it is ours. If taking this man's life brings peace, then isn't it the right thing to do?"

"I don't know..." Aang said, his voice quavering. He sank to his knees, holding his head. "I don't know!"

- - -

A cloaked figure came to the point in which the Serpent's Pass sank into the river. Looking around, he thought it looked like there had been some kind of powerful storm, the ground soaked and debris littering the ground. Not only that, but the titular serpent's corpse lay across the river, its head atop the path on the far side and its tail floating beside the path on this side.

"Well, this is easy," he said as he jumped on the back of the serpent and ran across the river. When he reached the far bank of the river, he noticed a giant toad sitting there, staring at him.

"Uh... hello..." The toad nodded to him and gestured down the road. Apparently it was pointing him where he needed to go. That was helpful of it.

"You... don't happen to know Jiraiya and Naruto, do you?" he asked. The toad nodded to that, and gestured again. Well, that was the direction he was going, so he might as well go. "Thanks," he said to the toad.

- - -

"I... I can't let you do it!" Aang declared. He ran up Itachi's spire, causing Momo to fly from his shoulder and Appa to growl nervously. He reached the top and tried to grab his shoulder, but his hand passed right through.

"I'm sorry, but this is just a projection of my spirit. Kisame and I left our real bodies nearby," Itachi said.

"We're real, though," Deidara offered. "Unlike that Uchiha, Sasori and I aren't scared to be caught with our pants down with a dead Wind Shadow."

Aang looked from Akatsuki to Akatsuki, and then looked down at the Kazekage, still floating in the midst of the nine spiritual dragons. He just couldn't allow this. "No," he said. He leaped from the spire into the the sphere of dragons, intending to knock the young man from the grasp of the sealing technique.

"No, Aang!" Itachi shouted. He hadn't expected this. If he entered the nine dragons, he wouldn't end the technique. He would certainly prolong it, but he would in fact end up being sealed as well. "You don't know what you're doing."

It was too late. As Aang fell, one ghostly dragon plunged itself down the boy's throat, then another entered his body through his stomach, and another went into his eye. They then began to exit through his ear, the crown of his head, and from the other chakras.

Aang kept drifting forward, though, toward the center of the storm where Gaara lay. As he drifted, he saw visions. Visions of the young Kazekage.

The young red head was sobbing in the midst of a barren, cracked wasteland. He was alone. All alone. He grew older, and he was still alone. He still cried out, but still no one came. He grew older, and collapsed to his knees. He was all alone. Complete desolation. Nothing but the sand as his friend.

Aang's hand grasped Gaara's shoulder, and he pulled the young man's body toward himself. The nine dragons now flowed freely between them, connecting them together. Aang appeared in front of the crying boy. Gaara looked up, and through his tears he thought he saw a familiar person standing over him. "Na… ru…"

No, it wasn't him. His tears cleared from his vision and he could see it was that airbender. He gasped and pulled back. Was he here to finally end his wretched existence? No… he couldn't let him. He couldn't let himself end like this!

Aang reached out his hand. "Come on," he said. When he saw the young man was unresponsive, he said, "I know reaching out to just me doesn't seem like much when you've been so lonely… but when you reach out to even one person… well… you'll find that you're really reaching out to many." Mist had gathered around them, and from this mist emerged an old man from the Fire Nation, a gigantic woman with face paint, a middle aged waterbender, a nun from the Air Nation, and many, many more. Perhaps thousands.

Deidara's and Sasori's cloaks blew back from the sudden pressure that came when the light of the Avatar State began to shine from Aang. They felt their chakra connection to the statue break, and the nine symbols that glowed upon the fingers of the grotesque sculpture faded for a moment before being replaced by ten that glowed with the power of the Avatar Spirit. When, in the boys' minds, Gaara took the outstretched hand, the Kazekage began to glow as well. The sand from Gaara's gourd rose up and engulfed the spirit dragons at this point, and even the sand from the young man's body began to swirl about the two.

The mist had thickened to impenetrable clouds, and now Aang said to Gaara. "We're friends, now, okay? Except… you can't stay here with me right now. You have to go back to your own world. We'll meet again, though."

"No," Gaara said. "I don't want to be alone, anymore."

Aang nodded. "I know. I feel the same. But… I don't think you will be. Go back, and you'll find what you need." He let go of the boy's hand, and Gaara began to sink into the sand, almost as quickly as if it were water. He became engulfed in it, thick at first, but then it became more like a dust storm. He found that he wasn't sinking, but was standing on solid ground as the sand flowed up and away from him. Soon he was breathing clean air, and the dust was fading high in the sky, leaving a bright, grassy field behind.

Gaara's body dropped to the floor, and the nine dragons made of sand focused their efforts solely on Aang. His body was now completely covered in sand, and the glow of his tattoos began to take on a dull red hue. He had temporarily become the Ichibi's jinchuriki.

- - -

"It looks like I caught up with you just in time," Jiraiya said as he sauntered up to Team 7, the members of which who were standing in front of a large boulder, as well as the old woman, Chiyo. "I took care of the spy that was following us for now, so they shouldn't even know we're here."

"I'm impressed, as always," Kakashi said. "I never had a clue we were being followed."

"There's no time for patting ourselves on the back!" Naruto exclaimed. "Come on, we need to get in there! It's been three days, so who knows what might have happened, already?"

Sakura looked at Naruto, holding back tears. He was so concerned for Gaara. He didn't even think about himself when Chiyo had told them of the fate of those whose tailed beasts were extracted. He had seen her shed a tear and had assumed it was for Gaara. She couldn't imagine how someone could be so selfless. She was determined not to let this man down. "Right," she said, turning toward the boulder. She reared back and punched with all her might. Energy crackled all along the sealed cavern, stopping her fist from reaching its intended target.

"It's sealed," Kakashi said. "This particular type of barrier can only be taken down if the five seals are simultaneously removed. Unfortunately, the other four seals are probably hidden apart from each other, so not only would we have to each split up, but it would take a long while to find the seals."

That wasn't acceptable at this point, Sakura thought. They couldn't each split up like that and waste time blindly looking for the seals. Gai's team could easily find them, but they also couldn't wait for them. "One more time," she said, focusing as much energy as she could into her fist.

"It doesn't matter how much strength you apply, you can't break a seal from the outside without finding the keys…" Kakashi tried to explain, but she didn't seem to be listening.

Sakura struck at the boulder with all the strength she had, and the barrier once again flashed and shuddered. Then the cracks appeared.

Inside, Deidara and Sasori found themselves being hurled through the air as their spires turned to sand. The astral projections of the other members flickered out of existence, as well, as their spires turned to dust. Momo hid in Appa's saddle, meanwhile, and Appa just did his best to keep the sand out of his nose as his friend seemed to lose control. The pressure of the Avatar Spirit combined with the demon spirit cracked the walls and was quickly turning the cavern into a sand pit ready to collapse.

The boulder sealing the entrance split enough that the seals tore right in two, and the barrier came down. Sakura laughed as she saw this and slapped the boulder, allowing it to crumble. "We're in," she said.

When the shinobi entered, though, they were taken aback by the amount of wind blowing them back. It took most of their strength just to move forward. Then they saw the Avatar floating amidst the sand dragons, glowing that bloody color and shrieking. Gaara was beneath him, unconscious.

"Gaara..." Naruto said, his voice strained with emotion. "What are you doing sleeping their lazily?" He raised his voice. "Stand the Hell up!"

Deidara laughed. "I take it you're the jinchuuriki?" he asked. "Such a loud mouthed ninja. Don't worry, though, he's alive. The Avatar took care of that. However, I would say the damage done by the technique is too much for him to survive without treatment, soon."

"Kyuu… biiiiiiiii!" Aang said in the dual voice of himself and the Ichibi. "It's… you!" He fixed his gaze on Naruto, and the glow around him and the glow of the symbols on the statue's fingers disappeared. His corneas had turned black and his irises and pupils were now that of Shukaku. His entire body was covered with the sand armor, even his tattoos only a loose pattern in the sand. The power he was emitting died down then, but he lifted his hand and from the sand covered cave floor a larger hand emerged, threatening to flatten Naruto.

"Hya!" Jiraiya exclaimed, jumping in front of Naruto and striking the sandy palm with a large rasengan. "Naruto!" he said. "It seems our one tailed friend holds a grudge, and also holds the power of the Avatar. If we want to keep Gaara safe, I would suggest leading him away before the beast causes too much destruction!"

"R-right!" Naruto agreed. As if on cue, the possessed Avatar raised a hand, and the walls of the cavern seemed to simply explode outward, leaving them exposed completely to the sky.

"I think I'll take that as my cue, too," Deidara muttered, rising from the ground. "Master Sasori, I'll take care of this one." He gestured toward Gaara. "It seems the jinchuuriki wants him back. It might make you angry, but I'll take care of this one!"

"The assignment is one person per beast," Sasori said smoothly. "Don't push it, Deidara."

"If an artist doesn't get high levels of inspiration, his sentiments are dulled... master," Deidara said. "It's said that the kyuubi's jinchuuriki is considerably strong, hm."

"What, you call those explosions fine art?" Sasori asked irately. "Fine art is something wonderful that's left long into the future... eternal beauty."

"They involve the same skilled labor," Deidara admitted. "I respect you, but fine art is the beauty of that single, fleeting moment of explosion!"

"Quit playing around," Naruto shouted, tossing a huge shuriken at Sasori. The puppet master deflected it easily with his tail, not even pausing from his argument with Deidara.

"He handles his puppets just like he did long ago," Chiyo commented.

Deidara quickly grabbed up Gaara's body and left as Sasori's ire became violent. "See you, master," he called back to Sasori as he flew away.

"Wait the Hell up!" Naruto shouted. "Well, if we're going to lead him away, we may as well go that way!" He began to run after the fleeing Deidara, followed by the others. The Ichibi possessed Avatar watched them run and began to fly after them.

Sasori turned to Chiyo, eyeing the old woman among the group. She gazed back at him with a mixture of love and resolute murderous intent. "Oh, well, I've kept you waiting for too long. You know how I hate to keep people waiting."

Chiyo remained stationary, face to face with her scorpion-like grandson.

"Naruto, Jiraiya, and I will handle the one outside and the Avatar!" Kakashi told Sakura. "You and Chiyo take care of that one, but don't overdo it until your backup is ready."

"Got it," Sakura said, turning to Sasori. She felt no small amount of trepidation seeing him. She could tell he was an experienced fighter and no stranger to murder.

"Sakura, don't be afraid," Chiyo said. "I'm here. Stay behind me." She tossed kunai at her grandson, and the Akatsuki blocked with his tail, though some managed to slash open his cloak, revealing a grotesque face on his back, out of the mouth of which his tail emerged.

"If you plan to oppose me, then I've no choice. Why don't you and that kid join my collection, eh, Chiyo? First I'll drag out your entrails, then when I've ripped off your skin, I'll clean off all the blood..."

"Sakura," Chiyo said. "That's not Sasori's real body. It's a puppet."

"I'll treat it so that it doesn't decay, then stock it up with the rest of my puppet collection. Like the old hag said, this me is but one of those bodies... also, with the two of you, it will become exactly 300 bodies. That is my fine art."

- - -

"Go faster, Naruto!" Kakashi urged as they flew through the forest canopy. He glanced back to see a storm of sand following closely at their heels. The Avatar was grinning madly as he pursued them.

"Kyuuuubiiiiii!" he shouted in a high pitched squeal.

"I'm going, I'm going!" Naruto said, his red, animal eyes focused on the flying blond in the distance. "I'm not letting him get away with Gaara!"

"I don't think that's what we're so much concerned with," Jiraiya said. He looked ahead, and saw four familiar faces making their way toward them. "Ah, so there they are."

Team Gai had been making its way slowly toward the Akatsuki's hideaway. Gai, himself, had been the most wounded of them, so Lee, the one who had sustained the least damage or fatigue, was now carrying him piggyback, with the other two following. They saw Kakashi and company as they approached, and veered toward them.

"Are we late?" Rock Lee asked.

"Yeah, I'd say you missed a few things," Naruto shouted back.

"The Avatar seems to have been possessed by the Ichibi. It seems to have a grudge against our Naruto," Kakashi explained. "We're also trying to recapture Gaara's body. He's not dead, yet, but he will be if he's not treated."

"Got it," Gai said. "Alright, Team! It's time to show the power of your youth. We'll stop the Avatar in his tracks to let Kakashi's team defeat Daybreak!"

"Wh-why are we always the distraction…?" Tenten wondered aloud as they came to a halt upon some tree branches and turned. She felt a sense of dread as she saw the Avatar bearing down on them, giggling maniacally.

"Okay!" Lee shouted, letting his master down. "I've fought this type before. I won't let you pass!" He leaped for the Avatar, bellowing a warcry.

"He's already forgotten how last time turned out, I suppose…" Tenten sighed as she unrolled a weapons summoning scroll.

- - -

Sakura dashed toward the puppet Chiyo had identified as Hiruko. This puppet contained Sasori's true body, becoming both armor and weapon. Sasori's grandmother knew the puppet well, but some modifications were unknown to her. Sakura, however, had the raw strength of her master, Tsunade, which could overpower any unforeseen traps. Because of this, Chiyo used her art of human puppetry on Sakura, who had to submit completely to the technique as the old woman could not overpower Sakura's will without the aid of the full moon. With the combination of Chiyo's experience and Sakura's power, the two managed to weave through Hiruko's defenses, and Sakura delivered a single blow to Hiruko's shell.

A form burst from the puppet. After the shadowy figure landed, it said in a youthful voice, "Of course, that's my grandmother. No wonder even that little girl could avoid my attacks." He laughed. "You saw my attacks, but used chakra threads from the puppet jutsu to control her. You even attached them to Hiruko's tail… back when you used the kunai."

Chiyo wasn't surprised that Sasori had managed to work it out. After all, it was she who taught him everything about the art of the puppet. What did surprise her was his appearance. When he revealed his face to them, it was as youthful as the day he left the village of the sand a decade ago. Perhaps even more youthful. Another surprise was his next move.

"I'll show you what I brought along," he said, unrolling a scroll with the kanji for three written on it. "Killing him for my collection gave me a hard time, indeed. That's why I like him best." From the scroll, he summoned a black haired human puppet garbed in a dark robe. It was a face all too familiar to Chiyo.

"The Third Kazekage!" she gasped. It had been over ten years since the Third had disappeared from the village, prompting Gaara's father's appointment as the Fourth. She realized now that her grandson was thrice the traitor, having helped capture Gaara, having led Orochimaru to the Fourth, and having murdered the Third, himself.

"I don't know about the Fourth," Sasori said. "It was my subordinate who guided him. I was partnered with Orochimaru in the past, so we did do many things, but…"

"You…" Sakura said tersely, having come to a realization. "You know about Orochimaru!"

"Well, let's get going," Sasori said.

- - -

Back above the forest floor, Team Gai navigated the undulating bridges of sand that surrounded the Avatar. Rock Lee and Gai were in the Avatar's face, kicking and punching their way through the sand, but there was so much of it that it was almost impossible to land a firm blow. Neji tried to break down the possessed boy's defenses with his vacuum palm technique, but even this only gave a short window of opportunity in which they could attack. All the while, the wall of sand inched ever forward, though it had been significantly slowed by their distraction.

Below, two blue garbed teens were limping onto the scene.

"H-hey, are we late?" Sokka asked.

"I'd say we missed a few things," Katara replied, looking into the storm of sand. "Did the Wind Shadow break free?"

"I can see that guy who beat the bending out of you," Sokka said, pointing to the white eyed soft fist expert high up in the sand.

"Shut up," Katara said. "You're one to talk. I think that green guy who just popped up there is the one you couldn't even hit."

"Oh, yeah," Sokka said. He squinted his eyes as he saw him kneeling down. "Eh? I wonder what he's doing?" Rock Lee stood again and tossed something off the sandy structure. It was small and appeared to have been around his ankles. "Are those training weights? Geez, don't tell me he beat me while wearing…"

A sudden explosion sounded as the weights hit the ground nearby.

"Whoa," Sokka said weakly. "I… I don't think we need to get into this, right now."

"I think you're right," Katara said.

- - -

"I'll get you!" Sakura screamed like a madwoman. "Even if you blow off my arms and legs, if I take in your poison and it paralyzes me, I'll get you, I swear it! No matter how much you resist, no matter what you do! I'll beat you half to death and make you talk about Orochimaru!"

Sasori was surprised that this little girl was taking it so hard. All he'd done just now was tried to poison her. It was she who had caused the explosion to get herself away from the gas. In any case, he found her ranting boring, and in the middle of her speech he decided to launch his puppet's kunai.

Sakura heard the thunks of the kunai on wood before she even noticed the two figures in front of her. Looking back, she could see that Chiyo had protected her from harm with two of her own puppets.

"Ah, them…" Sasori observed passively.

"Yes, the first puppets you constructed," Chiyo said. "Your mother and father."

"Pointless," Sasori said. "What do you plan to do with them? I know all their moves."

Chiyo answered by joining her childrens' hands together, connecting wires between their hands. In a deft display of puppetry, she guided the two around the manifold arms the Third had extended from his body, and sliced them to pieces.

"Awkward," Sasori commented. "Shall I get serious, then?" He allowed the mouth of his puppet to open and black sand spewed forth, floating in the air. "It's been awhile, eh? Since this is the jutsu that made people see the Sandaime Kazekage as the strongest of them all. So I'm really gonna kill you, now."

"What is that?" Sakura asked.

"The most feared weapon in the sand," Chiyo responded. "The iron sand. Based on previous Shukaku hosts' jutsu, the Sandaime created this, himself. It can be changed into any form, and weapons to suit the situation can be created. The Third Wind Shadow was born with a curious gift. He had a fire affinity, but he had the instinctual knowledge to use it to somehow attract or repel metal as he saw fit."

"But how can a puppet have the chakra energy to do that?" Sakura asked.

"The 'human puppet' was once a human being. A technique is used to contain the power and knowledge to perform the techniques the puppet used in life, but at the will of whatever puppeteer comes along. Sasori was the originator of this technique, and is the only one who knows how." Chiyo looked sternly at the young girl. "You should get out of here, now. I'll handle this from here out."

In spite of her warning, however, Sasori attacked too soon. His puppet used the iron drizzle technique, which rained down on them both. Chiyo moved her puppets to defend them, the mother getting Sakura out of the way while the father defended Chiyo, herself, with its shield. However, the iron sand seeped into the father's joints, stopping it from moving.

Sasori moved to attack again, both at the same time. "With one puppet," he taunted, "There's no way you can both be blocked. What now, old woman?" The sand, now formed into long, black spears, crashed down upon the two women, kicking up a cloud of dust. When it cleared, Sasori could see that the puppet of his mother had saved Sakura. However, when he scanned for his grandmother's corpse, he saw her, a shield having sprouted from her own arm. "Your arm… you've rigged your own arm. I guess we puppeteers think along the same lines." He laughed.

Chiyo wasn't quite sure at the moment. Her arm was now useless, as were the two puppets of Sasori's parents. She couldn't help but think back to Sasori's childhood, when he had turned his dead parents into puppets. He had been happy with them at first, but puppets couldn't replace the love of his real, living parents. She shook off the memories. At this point they were useless. Even for her, it was hopeless.

"Use me!" Sakura said. "I'll be your puppet!"

Chiyo was surprised at the girl's determination. "I can only use one arm," she said. "So I can't help you as much as before."

"That's fine," Sakura said. After all, she was a medical ninja, and Tsunade had trained her in the art of evasion. Even if it was only a short time, she could figure out Sasori's patterns and fight him on her own if she had to.

Chiyo nodded and extended her strings to Sakura.

- - -

Rock Lee and Gai were leaping about at break neck speed, their punches having a much greater rate of successful impact than before. Now, though, they had opened their chakra gates as well. Even so, as they took chunks of rock off of the second skin the Avatar had given himself, they only seemed to be making him… laugh. It was unnerving.

Tenten had just been caught by some of the sentient sand that they were fighting upon, and it had broken several of her ribs. Neji, whose leg had already been broken in the conflict, managed to free her from the tendril's clutches, and he leaped from the sand to safety. Both of them were out of their league, now.

Shukaku allowed the green clad shinobi to have their way with his new host's body for awhile. However, it was starting to get bloodied. Ignoring the blows, he slowly inhaled as he summoned the great power held within this host's body. Much more power than Gaara could handle, he mused. Then as the older one came at him for one more skull cracking punch, he let loose the air, and the bolt of carbon dioxide slammed into the man, cracking his sternum and launching him almost a kilometer from where he had started.

"Master!" Rock Lee called, seeing Gai falling into the trees below. "No…" he scowled at the Avatar and felt his life force moving strongly through his chakras, and he further released the fifth and sixth gates within his fire and water chakras, respectively. He shot at the boy and began pounding on his body with all the speed and power he could muster.

The Avatar's hand shot up after a moment, grabbing one of Lee's fists. His other hand was clenched into a fist, and had grown to a ridiculous size due to a glove of sand that had formed around it. The Avatar delivered a bone crushing blow to Lee's side. The shinobi tried to kick, but his feet had been devoured by the sand on which he was standing. Shukaku used his host's fist to pound mercilessly on the shinobi, until finally the boy was unconscious and sagging waist deep in the sand.

The Avatar smiled and let Rock Lee sink into the sand. He and the mass of sand that had once been the cavern of the Akatsuki trudged on, depositing Lee on the ground as it left.

"He's hurt bad!" Katara shouted as she rushed over to the prone figure.

"Whoa, Katara!" Sokka said as he saw his little sister begin to go over the boy with glowing water. "He's Fire Nation! You know, the enemy?"

"Still, they could have killed us," Katara said. "But they didn't. We can't just let them die. Besides…" she looked fearfully toward the living sandstorm that was receding from them, now. "That… that was Aang. He's… I think he's been possessed by something."

"Yeah," Sokka said. "Apparently by a real badass."

"Sokka!"

- - -

True to her word, Sakura proved a devastating opponent for Sasori, even being able to see through his attacks on her own. He had been forced to use an almost impossible to dodge technique one her, trapping her in a maze of iron blades. She had indeed been scratched multiple times by the poisoned iron, but again Sasori's tactics had been predicted. The poison she had drawn out of Naruto's body had allowed her to create three antidotes, one going to Naruto, and the other she used now. With that surprise, she was able to destroy the puppet of the Third, which had attacked while Sasori thought her paralyzed.

Now Sasori realized that it was time to bring out his ultimate weapon. The reason he had not appeared to age since he had left Sunagakure was that he had made his own body into a work of fine art. He was his own greatest puppet.

He attacked the girl with all his murderous intent, now. Firing weapons from his body and flames from flame throwers within his hands. Throughout the barrage, Sakura managed to dodge him alone. He then fired a cable with an edged weapon attached to the end from his gut, which slashed Sakura's arm.

Using the distraction, Sasori leaped at his grandmother, the blades installed in his arm whirring like saws. However, before he could strike, the cable in his gut twanged musically as it suddenly came to an end. Looking back over his shoulder, Sasori saw Sakura holding his cable, with a look of rage in her eyes.

"Shannaro!" she shouted, pulling him toward her. She laid a devastating punch on him which burst his body to pieces. She panted for a moment, relieved that she had defeated him within the time limit of the antidote. Then she laughed. "Haha. We did it… Chiyo-sama, we did it!"

"Sakura… you…" Chiyo began, awestruck.

Sakura suddenly heard a rattling behind her. Turning, she saw Sasori's body reassembling itself. His head spun around unnaturally and his eyes focused on Sakura with a cold rage.

Chiyo readied herself to summon her ultimate technique, the ten puppets that had let her defeat an entire fortress single handedly. However, just as she was about to make her move, her grandson's limbs went akimbo.

"…" Sasori's eyes moved back and forth between his limbs. "Wh-what is this? I… can't move. This… this isn't you, grandmother?"

"It's a pain." Sakura and Chiyo looked behind Sasori to see a sand covered figure taking the same position as Sasori. "We go through all the trouble of arriving early by air and digging an underground tunnel in preparation for a surprise attack, and then you go and dump a bunch of sand on the floor. Not to mention that explosion at the beginning caved in part of our tunnel."

"Shikamaru!" Sakura shouted.

"What?" Sasori asked. "How? We were told you and that Gaara's siblings had all stayed behind!"

"You're not the only one with a knack for making puppets," another voice said. It was Temari, who also emerged from the sand, shaking the dirt out of her blonde hair. "My brother stayed behind with puppet copies of us to throw off suspicion. We thought there might be a need for a trump card."

"Well, if you're going to finish him," Shikamaru said. "Do it now!"

Chiyo pulled on two of her puppets with her chakra strings, and used their blades to pierce Sasori through the heart: the only part of him that was still human. He slumped, cradled in his dead parents' arms. "Heh… well, I guess… for defeating me, I'll do something pointless for you," he said. "You want to know about Orochimaru, right?"

- - -

"Augh!" From atop his clay bird, Deidara screamed as his arm suddenly found itself freed from the rest of his body. "Wh-what was that?" he wondered.

Kakashi closed his left eye. The technique he had just used to disarm the Akatsuki was quite painful. His aim was off and he still couldn't control the radius of the barrier of the attack. He tried to focus his new sharingan again, but he was worn.

However, he didn't have to worry, as Naruto had already ascended with a cadre of clones to beat the blond criminal into submission. He punched Deidara away and tore the bird apart, landing in the trees to free the unconscious Gaara.

Deidara panted in the limbs of one of the trees. He wasn't too worried about the jinchuuriki, but anyone with the kind of eye techniques that were on par with Itachi's was not someone with whom he wanted to be engaged. Not yet, anyway. He felt something pat him on the back at that point. Turning his head, he saw that jinchuuriki about whom he wasn't worried frowning with his red eyes glaring at him.

Naruto slammed his fist into Deidara's head, knocking him out of the tree. Following him, he created more clones and proceeded to pummel him in midair before driving him into the ground. His demon cloak flared around him, hissing and bubbling.

"Kyuuuuuuubiiiiiiii!"

Naruto looked up to see the Avatar descending to the forest floor, sand surrounding and encasing his body. "Wh-what... you?" He felt his inner demon writhe inside him, enraged. Two tails bubbled behind him. "Shukaku!" Naruto growled, the name for some reason coming out more easily than any other. "You did this to Gaara!"

The Avatar raised his arms, two large bulges of sand forming beside him. "That's right... Ono. You're still in there, aren't you? It took me a long time to remember, but that's the advantage of having a human body." His face twisted into a sneer. "This time I'll destroy you utterly!"

Five Kakashi clones dropped from the trees at that moment, weaving toward the Avatar. Shukaku lashed out at the distractions with tendrils of sand, and they passed through each Kakashi easily, causing the illusions to vanish. The real Kakashi's electrified fist then burst from the Avatar's chest, as the shinobi had attacked from behind with his lightning blade. The Avatar's head and arm's however, broke off, sand pouring from the rocky shell. Kakashi cursed and tried to remove his arm from the decoy, but it tightened its grip on him, and he felt his right arm's ulna bone snap.

Jiraiya quickly performed a rasengan on the pillar of sand that was now crushing his grand-student's arm and pulled sharply, freeing the white haired shinobi. "This boy is not one to be trifled with," he told Kakashi. "Especially after you've used the mangekyou!"

"My apologies," Kakashi said.

"The Ichibi isn't even the one we need to worry about. Either of them. Naruto's sprouted two tails. We need to stop him before he gets to four!"

The Avatar had now reemerged and engaged the kyuubi's jinchuuriki directly. Naruto's physical attacks were on par with Rock Lee's at this point, but the Avatar was still the superior fighter, here. His rock fists, air bullets, and sand defense combined to bring Naruto to his knees. He was now sprouting a third tail.

"We have to stop him!" Jiraiya shouted to Kakashi as the two tailed beasts' hosts clashed in even hotter fury than before.

"Wouldn't it be better to let him defeat our rather formidable enemy, first? I hate to say this, but I don't think either of us stands a chance, here," Kakashi said.

"He could beat the Avatar," Jiraiya conceded. "If he went four-tail. By then, however, he won't have sense enough to distinguish friend from foe, and it will be damned near impossible to stop him. I nearly died when it happened during our training to open his final chakra." The old man watched the battle, waiting for a good moment to enter the fray. He saw it when, after being slashed badly by Naruto's claws, the Avatar brought a tsunami of sand down upon the boy, pinning him. Jiraiya rushed into the momentary lull, a premade seal in hand. He could see that the fox's cloak was thickening, beginning to peel away Naruto's flesh. He would just barely make it.

As he thought, just a moment before his arrival, Naruto burst from the sand, with a stub of a fourth tail sprouting. The red demon energy was blotting out Naruto's features, as well. Jiraiya, however, smacked the seal onto Naruto's head, and the energy began to dissipate, leaving tired and exhausted Naruto. "Whoa," the blond said wearily. "How'd I get free? I blacked out for a second…"

"You used the last of your strength to get out," Jiraiya said. "You're drained, now, but you've weakened the Avatar greatly."

"Weakened?" Shukaku said. "No, no… this spirit has infinite power to draw upon." His tattoos began to glow red from underneath the sand. "I've never been host to a human with such reserves of power to draw upon. Usually it's me the human needs to make himself more powerful, but now I find it seems to be the other way around." He flexed his muscles and a rush of wind blew the shinobi back. "Why, yes, I seem to find myself quite reinvigorated, already! Now it's time for you to die!" He once again raised a mass of sand from the ground, the entirety of what used to be a cavern.

Flames enshrouded the Avatar the next moment. From a short distance away, a familiar scarred boy was thrusting his fists out as rapidly as possible, peppering his target with firepower. He paused for a short moment to gather his reserves and let loose a rather large stream of fire with which to finish the Avatar off. However, a wall of sand prevented his finishing maneuver from connecting. "I'm not through with you, Avatar!" he shouted, drawing a pair of blades.

"Just who do you think you are," Shukaku growled angrily. Zuko got within slashing distance and began to hack away at the Avatar's body, flames washing the steel. Shukaku, however, had formed miniature sand shields on his forearms and used them to block the strikes. Shukaku found Zuko's arrogance that he could match the Great Sand Priest amusing.

The prince, however, did not feel so obliged to continue entertaining the beast. After a quick feint, he managed to slide his swords within Shukaku's defenses, and pushed the tips of his blades into two of the crevices caused by one of Naruto's clawed attacks. He knocked the Avatar to the ground and drove the blades right into his guts, causing Shukaku to let out a shriek of horrible rage.

"That was a biiiiig mistake!" he said. "You'll have to learn your lesson." His sand pulled the boy off of him and pinned him to the earth, where he began to crush his limbs. "And suffering will be your teacher." He could hear the bones snapping already, and grinned at the boy's scream.

"That's enough of that!" Jiraiya shouted, using a rasengan along with his blond student to push the Avatar back.

"I won't stop!" Shukaku said with delight. "My sand will continue to crush him until he's nothing but paste." In spite of the pounding the two shinobi attempted to give him, it seemed he was right.

"You won't win, Avatar!" Zuko cried out. "It's my destiny to defeat you! My honor will be… I won't give up!" He strained against his earthen bonds. They were starting to close on his ribs, now. "Do you hear me Ava… Ava…" He gasped as he felt his diaphragm being crushed. "Aang!" he shouted.

- - -

"Aang!"

The young monk heard his name being called. It was a familiar voice. It was a voice that made him want to run, but at the same time made him want to wait to see why that voice would be calling him by his real name. He hadn't heard that before. He tried to open his eyes, but he realized he was covered in sand. It was dark and made him feel claustrophobic, so he began to thrash, trying to dig his way out of this grave. He rejoiced when he felt his hand touch air, and he began to worm his way in that direction. Finally, his head and shoulders emerged, and he looked around.

His past lives were there, but it was strange. They seemed to be made of sand, and their glowing eyes were a ruddy color. There was also an unfamiliar man, there. He was wrapped in robes reminiscent of an air monk's, though he certainly lacked the distinctive hairstyle. He was also made of sand. "What… what are you doing here?" he asked, for he could feel that this sand monk did not belong.

"What?" he said with surprise, looking down at Aang pulling himself out of the ground. "You can't be here. I buried you!"

Now Aang remembered. When he had let go of Gaara, he had suddenly found himself being sucked up by the sand as well. So it was this person who had done that to him! "You're the one who's not supposed to be here," he said. "Get out!" His eyes began to glow as he walked toward the sand monk.

"No!" Shukaku growled. "I have all your power, now! All your past lives' power!" He beckoned the past Avatars to him as proof, but they suddenly dissolved back into sand.

"You're wrong," Aang said. "They are a part of me." The past Avatars formed from clouds gathering behind Aang, and their eyes were all glowing blue. "Like I said," the Avatars all chanted simultaneously.

- - -

"Get ouuuuuuut!" Aang shouted into the sky as blue light erupted from his eyes and mouth. The sand that surrounded him and encased his body reformed suddenly into the nine dragons as red energy infused them, and they began to fly at full speed toward the destroyed cavern. After a moment passed, he collapsed, clearly wiped out by the experience. The battle damage his body had incurred wasn't much help, either.

"Aang!" a feminine voice called from a short distance away. "Oh, no! What happened!"

Jiraiya and Naruto withdrew as she came to her friend's aid, water already glowing around her hand. Her brother and Team Gai were trailing behind, the members of the shinobi team looking worn, but much better than they had been immediately after their battle with the Avatar. "Sorry we had to rough him up a little," Naruto said to her. "But he _was_ trying to kill us…"

"…" Katara said nothing at first. Then she said, with icicles in her voice, "Whatever. Just go away," and continued working furiously to heal Aang.

The shinobi nodded to each other and, with a puff of smoke, they disappeared along with the heavily wounded Zuko.


	15. Trapped

**Elements of War**

**Chapter 14  
Trapped**

Zuko watched the youthful blonde woman behind the desk and wondered to himself how such a person could be considered the strongest of the Leaf village's shinobi. Female warriors were conceded to be of equal capability to men for years in the Fire Nation, of course. His own little sister was proof that women could be fiercely able on the battlefield. However, this woman didn't look like she'd spent a day in her life fighting, not to mention she seemed like she would be... weighed down. He did his best not to let his teenage hormones lead his eyes astray. Looks could be deceiving, after all, and he didn't want to risk finding out.

"This is very interesting information you've provided us, Sakura," Tsunade said to her young apprentice. She turned to Zuko, as well, frowning dubiously at him. "And this vagabond you've picked up... you say he's trained in the arts of the Konoha ninja?"

"A little," Sakura said. "He can perform the basic clone illusion as well as the leaf substitution jutsu... though his execution is flawed. Master Jiraiya also seems to have..." she cleared her throat suggestively, "Suggested some training regiments, the details of which are traditionally kept more... vague."

"I see," Tsunade said. "Normally when an outsider is made privy to village secrets, he is killed." She looked pointedly at Zuko, who gulped audibly. "However... there is an exception. You may be allowed to join the village as an honorary genin. In this case, you will have to pledge loyalty to this village and nation. Your sincerity will be verified by our interrogation specialists, of course."

Zuko could feel his short bangs becoming damp with the nervous sweat now pouring out of him.

"In addition, we will place a special seal on you which will ensure your continued loyalty. If you should betray us in the future, I would be able to personally execute you from kilometers away."

"Well, that sounds like a great offer..." Zuko said.

"It's the only one you'll get, I'm afraid. Otherwise, I could kill you right now."

"Yeah," Zuko said glumly. "Well, I guess I can agree to that."

"That's good," Tsunade said. "Now, let me record your information for your dossier. What was your name, again, young man?"

"Er... Lee..."

"'Lee?'" Tsunade repeated. "Really, you might as well call yourself something like... 'Wang Fire' or some such thing. No, that won't do. How about Ogura? Yes, that's a perfect shinobi alias." She giggled as she wrote the name down, while Zuko sighed.

- - -

"Very good, Sasuke," Orochimaru hissed with approval for his student. "But you'll never be able to kill Itachi if you can't even kill your own emotions."

The young shinobi looked coldly at the unconscious and incapacitated bodies of the genin and chunin level Sound ninja that littered the area, then bowed to his master. "I won't show him mercy, even if he gets on his knees and begs for it."

Not a scratch on him, Orochimaru mused. People used to call him a genius, but at that age even he was nothing compared to Sasuke. But it was only a matter of time, now, and all that power would be his.

A delicate clapping came from behind Sasuke, and he turned to see the red armored princess of the Fire Nation leaning against the wall with a casual smirk on her face. "That was very impressive. I don't think I've seen such precision before... but I stopped practicing in the mirror ages ago."

"You're back," Sasuke said.

"That's right." Azula straightened and walked forward with little care for whose limbs she trampled over. "Ty Lee and Mai have also come back."

"You'd decided to leave," Sasuke said. "Weren't you going to break through that wall with that big drill of yours?"

Azula stopped and crossed her arms, her posture rigid. She turned her head and scoffed, a puff of angry smoke coming from between her lips. "Incompetence!" She turned her gaze back to him expectantly. "You can say you told me so if you want. I won't hurt you."

"I'm not worried about that," Sasuke said in such a blatant manner that the princess' gaze visibly grew more irate.

"If you must know," Azula said in a low tone, "It seems while we were distracted by those pitiful soldiers and the two waterbending friends of the Avatar, two men snuck inside the drill and... melted the support beams."

"Friends of the Avatar?" Sasuke said, his interest piqued. "And they melted the beams? How?"

"Black fire was found still burning after the drill collapsed."

Sasuke's eyes turned red and his cursed mark began to itch. "That man... Itachi! He was there, wasn't he?"

"That's right," Azula said. "Ty Lee said she saw a man in a black cloak with red clouds. It would have to be him, wouldn't it?"

Sasuke nodded. "So he's in Ba Sing Se. Interesting..."

"It is interesting, isn't it?" Orochimaru said, interjecting himself into the conversation as he put an arm around the young shinobi. "What will you do, Sasuke? You've already missed several opportunities to kill him, haven't you? Maybe you aren't ready to face him. After all... even I wasn't powerful enough to overwhelm your older brother."

The young man took a sidelong glance at his mentor, his animosity veiled. "I will kill him. Alone. That's always been my plan. And after I'm done, I don't care what happens to me."

Orochimaru seemed satisfied, and slithered past the princess toward the cavern door. "I think I'll go check how that little blind girl you brought me is fairing. She's been quite an interesting subject to study, Sasuke."

After he was out of earshot, Azula turned to Sasuke with a slight look of concern on her face. "You have a complicated relationship with your master, don't you? What exactly is the nature of your relationship?"

"Tools," he said. "Same as any shinobi. He is my tool for vengeance, and I am his tool for... research."

"Funny," Azula said with a haughty laugh. "I didn't think you were the type to be used. Aren't you the kind of guy who would rather use tools than be one?"

Sasuke, after a moment's consideration, dismissed her. "I don't know what you're talking about. Would you like to spar or not?"

Azula rolled her eyes. "You're truly a master of conversation, shinobi. Fine, let's play, but afterward I want to discuss with you how we are going to get inside those walls."

- - -

Several days earlier, at the Eastern Air Temple, the old guru, Pathik, performed his daily meditations as usual. He wasn't very surprised when he found he had visitors, and even less so that one among them happened to be the Avatar. Sitting up, he greeted the travelers. "Hello, Aang. And welcome to your companions as well."

"Uh, yeah..." Aang said. "I got this message from someone. A person from... the Fire Nation."

"Aah, yes," Pathik said, remembering the precocious blond child who had stumbled upon the temple with his master. "Young Naruto Uzumaki. He has great potential as an airbender and a sage. Such a fiery will, too." He laughed boisterously.

"Is this really the guy who can help you master the Avatar State?" Sokka asked with obvious cynicism as he trudged with heavy feet up to the group. He had been moving slowly since Aang had sealed the one tailed beast, and his friends assumed he was just experiencing some exhaustion.

"He is," Itachi said. He turned to Guru Pathik and bowed in the traditional Fire Nation manner. "I am honored to meet you, sir. I have heard many things about you."

"Not all of them bad, I hope," Pathik said. "So have you come for training, too?"

"No, Guru," Itachi responded. "It isn't my place..."

"Even those of us who have attained enlightenment," Pathik said, "Could afford to go over the basics every now and then. I can see that you have some great burden in your spirit."

"I assure you," Itachi said. "I can... and must... deal with that burden on my own."

"Ooh, so cryptic," Kisame said. "That's so like you, Itachi."

Itachi ignored the comment and placed his hand on Aang's head. "Remember, Aang. The good of many is more important than the good of one. This is a lesson you must learn if you are to achieve enlightenment." He turned to the others. "This is training Aang must do on his own. We must go to Ba Sing Se, now. There, we will be of more help informing the Earth King of our new information."

"Right," Sokka said. "About the Day of Black Sun!"

The others were unimpressed with Sokka's overly dramatic name for the day when the solar eclipse would occur. They owed this information to the former host of the one-tailed beast. After realizing his life had been saved by the Avatar, and recognizing him as both the last of the true Air Nomads and the ambassador of all four Nations, he repaid this service with information he had come across while in the Library. He had found that firebenders lost their power during a solar eclipse, and having studied the star room, knew of the date of the next eclipse. This date he gave them in hopes that it would aid the Avatar in his journey.

Aang's friends then left the Air Temple on Appa, leaving him and Momo behind to study the opening of the chakras. They came to Ba Sing Se later that day, and there found and destroyed the Fire Nation's drill, much to the joy of the Earth Kingdom generals who had been dismayed to find their soldiers were helpless before the power of a single Fire Nation gymnast.

After several days in Ba Sing Se, however, they were becoming frustrated with their inability to meet with the king. Their guide, Ju Dee, was pleasant but unhelpful, and they suspected not entirely there. Even upon attempting themselves to crash the Earth King's party, they were routed away before they could see the king by uniformed men called the Dai Li and their leader Long Feng, who strongly urged them to not make trouble, informing them that he was the power behind the king and that the war with the Fire Nation was taboo for discussion within the walls of Ba Sing Se.

"Well, I'd say this is pretty much the worst city ever," Kisame commented as the gang of travelers lazed about in their assigned domicile. "It would be nice if we at least had some secret mission to do..."

"Ooh, secret mission..." Sokka said with a dreamy look on his face. "That sounds... so... awesome." His face broke into a crazed expression. "Hey! Maybe you guys can make me a part of your group! I could do secret ninja stuff!"

Kisame laughed. "Well, I'm afraid we don't have a lot of openings for new recruits. Even Sasori's position has already been filled... not that the new guy really fills me with much confidence. Just some snot nosed subordinate of Zetu's who somehow managed to pass the trial. I feel for little Deidara." He stroked his chin. "Though there has been one opening vacant for awhile."

"Really? What's that?" Sokka asked excitedly. "I would totally be perfect for it!"

"Well, you know that kid, Sasuke, right?" Kisame asked. "Well, his master Orochimaru was our tenth member at one point. He turned traitor some years back and took his membership ring with him, which is required to become a full fledged member of the organization." He grinned toothily. "If you want his position, you'll have to go and take that ring back from him."

Sokka imagine exactly what Sasuke's master might be like. As scary as that guy was, his master would have to be worse. Just like Sasuke except with bigger, spikier hair, and muscles on his muscles. And a sword twice as big as his body. "Ehh... no, I think I might have to pass on that."

"Eh, well... you could always make a fine subordinate," Kisame said. "It's like an intern. You don't get paid and you have to do all the work we wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, but you'll get some experience, and that gives you at least a minuscule chance of actually becoming Akatsuki."

"Yeah, I think I'm gonna have to say 'no' to that," Sokka said, struggling to his feet. "I'm gonna go for a walk, if you don't mind." He began to shuffle for the door, his feet sliding across the ground.

"Hey, Sokka," Katara said. "Are you sure you don't want me to look at your legs? It's been days since we fought those Fire Nation ninja and you're still walking like you have lead feet."

"Uh, no!" Sokka said with a little too much force. "No, I'm perfectly fine. I think I just need to loosen my legs up with a walk, like I said." He marched out the door, his feet pounding on the floor as he went.

Itachi silently stood and followed the young man.

- - -

Zuko and his two new friends walked the streets of Konoha. Zuko was still a bit woozy from his interrogation, which had involved a blond man with a ponytail doing something with his head. He found it unnerving that ninja had these kinds of powers, but on the other hand, if he could convince them to use their power in service of his father once again, perhaps he could prove his worth.

"Hey, let's go get some ramen," Sakura suggested. "You're buying, Naruto."

Naruto gasped and cradled his frog-shaped coin purse protectively. "My poor Gama-chan..."

Zuko followed along as they headed for the Ichiraku Ramen shop, but he felt he should at least broach the subject on his mind. "Tell me... what are you planning on doing about the Avatar?"

"The Avatar?" Naruto asked. "You mean the bald kid with the tattoos?"

"Yeah..."

"I dunno. Should we be doing something about him?" Naruto asked. "He may be involved with Akatsuki, but he seems okay. Besides, Gaara vouched for him."

Sakura nodded. "Yes. I remember reading some history about the Avatar in relation to our village, in fact. Wasn't the last Avatar, Roku, responsible for teaching both the First and Second Hokage water manipulation? There's also been some speculation that Shodaime's unique abilities were due to being trained by the Avatar."

"You don't understand," Zuko said, exasperated. "The Avatar's mission is to defeat the Fire Nation... and you're part of the Fire Nation."

"Well, yeah," Naruto said. "But... we can't really help directly."

"That's right," Sakura said. "The five great shinobi villages signed a treaty toward the end of the last Fire Lord's reign. While we can be hired by the Fire Nation government, we can't take part in any military efforts against the other great villages or their sponsor states aside from information gathering. It was Prince Iroh who fostered this treaty and presented it to Fire Lord Azulon, and since the current Fire Lord came into power, we haven't been officially hired by the government at all, though plenty of officials have hired us for internal investigations or fugitive hunts."

"The Avatar has nothing to do with the other nations," Zuko said. "He's the last of the Air Nation, and since my great grandfather destroyed their armies and wiped them out, that nation no longer exists."

"This really means a lot to you, doesn't it?" Sakura asked. "Capturing the Avatar, I mean."

"Right now, I'm a Fire Nation fugitive. Branded a traitor," Zuko said. "My father told me the only way I could ever return was if I caught the Avatar. It's the only way I can possibly be redeemed, now."

Naruto nodded. "I understand. You just want to be acknowledged by him... alright, then. We'll help you if we can!"

"Naruto!" Sakura growled at her teammate. "Don't make promises you can't keep."

"Hey, when I make a promise, I keep it no matter what!"

Zuko nearly smiled at that, but then heard a voice behind him shout, "Hey, bro!" Turning around he saw a smoky explosion not more than three meters away and out of this cloud a very busty and very nude young woman emerged. "Oiroke no jutsu," she said.

Zuko suddenly felt faint and dropped to the ground. "U-uhh..." Another explosion of smoke and the nude girl became a boy who was thankfully fully clothed.

"How was that?" he asked. "A real drool of a technique, huh?"

Sakura helped Zuko back to his feet. So this was the power of ninjutsu, Zuko realized. With power like that, there was no way any nation could stand up to the ninja. He looked at the young girl who was holding him up and saw her scowling at the two boys. It had been Naruto who had invented that technique, and Sakura considered it a crude exploitation of the art which wasn't worthy of any ninja much less someone who wanted to be Hokage.

Naruto laughed. "Konohamaru, I'm sorry," he said. "But I'm not a kid anymore." His face was serious as his eyes bore into the young man. "From now on you shouldn't use that technique, either."

Sakura's initial feeling of distaste for Naruto's invention of such a jutsu evaporated with his mature speech. _So, _she thought, _Naruto hasn't just matured in appearance. It makes me a little sad. You've become so amazing... Naruto._

Zuko braced himself and went from being supported by Sakura to grasping onto the girl with the mooning eyes and flushed cheeks who had begun to wobble on her own feet. _Geez,_ he thought, _how does a kid like that get a girl like this to swoon?_

"Such a jutsu is now mediocre!" Naruto continued, his fist clenched as he shouted his declaration. "Behold! The new perverted jutsu I've been developing! Here we goooo!"

"Aha!" Sakura said with a wispy voice as she beamed angelically, still in the midst of her sparkling feelings of admiration. "A new ninjutsu, you say. A new perv..." Suddenly what he'd said clicked.

"_A new perverted ninjutsu?!_" she raged, her fist plowing into the boy with what would normally be lethal force. "_You idiot!_" She stomped over to the boy and pulled him up by the collar. His eyes were glazed and he was bleeding heavily from the attack. "I was wrong! You haven't changed one bit! I haven't seen you for over two years and already you jump straight into that! You idiot!" She began to throttle the blond mercilessly at this point, frightening Konohamaru to the point that he dashed over to Zuko to hide behind him. "What happened to that wonderful feeling of respect I had for you just now? As if I could feel sad that I wasn't grown up like you!"

"Um... Sakura..." Zuko said nervously. "Hey, over here... you're scaring the chicken pig feathers out of this kid..."

"Grr," Sakura said, dropping the young man. "Right, well... we should go visit Kakashi at the hospital. After overusing his sharingan to save your butt," she pointed rudely at Naruto. "We should at least go pay him some respect."

- - -

"Well, I have to say this plan went off better than I expected," Azula said, admiring her new green outfit. They were currently within a deep cavern on the outskirts of the underground, supposedly abandoned city of Old Ba Sing Se. A squad of Dai Li agents lay unconscious nearby. Azula shot a glance at the diminutive member of their group. "You weren't much help though."

"Hey, I got my own," Toph responded. "I take care of my business and you can take care of yours."

Azula smiled with thinly veiled malevolence. "That may be how you're used to doing things coddled in your hick Earth Kingdom village, but here I'm in charge, and I said we were to ambush the squad together."

"Whatever, Sugar Princess," Toph shot back.

"'Sugar Princess'?" Azula repeated, her voice strained with indignation.

"Now, ladies," Orochimaru said with smooth conviction. "There's no need to fight. We have our disguises and we have the key to enter the city unnoticed. Young Toph will do what is necessary when the time is right."

Azula shot a glare at Orochimaru, but the shinobi was unflappable, and she was in no mood to break her own cool by arguing over trifles. "Well, let's go then."

The group entered Old Ba Sing Se in their guise as Dai Li agents. The underground city was not, however, as abandoned as everyone believed. People milled about all along the streets and in the caverns that served as buildings in the old city. All of them bore the same insignia on headbands: that of Iwagakure, or the Hidden Rock Village.

"So this is the Rock Village," Suigetsu said under his breath. "No wonder its considered the most well protected of the great shinobi villages. Not only is it hidden so well that not even the other villages know exactly where it is, it's actually hidden under the Impenetrable City."

"Even I would have never been able to find it," Orochimaru admitted. "If not for the connections of the Daybreak Organization. That's why I created a hideout with underground connections to the city of Old Ba Sing Se... I thought they might come in handy."

As the ten infiltrators split into three groups, one consisting of Orochimaru, Kabuto, and Toph, another of Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai, and the other of Sasuke, Karin, Suigetsu, and Juugo, another man watched passively, garbed in normal rock ninja clothing. After watching them pass, he returned his gaze to the pad of paper he was holding, moving his charcoal methodically across its surface.

- - -

Sokka's foot stomped clumsily on the ground as he recovered from an equally clumsy kick. He then swung his club in a weary set of strikes as sweat poured from his brow. After a few minutes, he collapsed to his knees, panting with exhaustion. "I still don't know how that guy could move so easily like this..."

"Hard work," a deep voice said from the shadows. Itachi seemed to melt from them as he entered the small, isolated corner of the city in which Sokka had been practicing. "And proper instruction. I can see you've been working hard, but you lack in the latter."

"Well, maybe if I had some bending or crazy ninja powers..."

"That boy you fought," Itachi said. "He was your age. He was also no bender, nor did he have 'crazy ninja powers.' His special skill set resides solely in the art of physical combat, just like you."

Sokka scowled. "Really? I figured there must be some trick to moving like he does."

"No trick, really," Itachi said. "Aside from having a proper regiment. You could start by removing those weights you took."

Sokka sheepishly did so. "I thought if I used them, I could get as fast as that guy..."

"Weights are a good supplement to training," Itachi conceded. "However, you aren't at the point yet where they will be useful. First you have to build the strength needed to walk with them without looking like you're about to die."

"Uh, yeah..."

Itachi reached into his cloak. "If you want to become strong enough that you can fight without being a burden on your friends, you'll need help."

Sokka's eyes lit up. "Sweet! Are you going to show me some super cool ninja sword fighting techniques?"

"Let's take this one step at a time," Itachi said. He withdrew his hand from his cloak and presented Sokka with the item in his hand.

"A... a brush?"

- - -

"The sixth pool of energy is the Light chakra, located in the center of the forehead. It deals with insight and is blocked by illusion. The greatest illusion of this world is the illusion of separation. Things you think are separate and different are actually one and the same."

Aang nodded at Guru Pathik's explanation. "Like the four nations."

"Yes. We are all one people, but we live as if divided," Pathik said.

"We're all connected," Aang said, remembering what Pein had told him back in the swamp. "Every thing's connected."

"That's right," Pathik said. "Even the separation of the four elements is an illusion. The lightning in the sky contains the basic, purified element of fire just as metal is simply earth that has been refined. The trees are a combination of elements of the earth and water. Our own bodies are also made of earth and water, while we breathe in the air and contain the spark of fire within us. Everything is connected through the divine element of aether, the spirit."

"That's what ninja like Itachi use..." Aang said.

Pathik nodded. "Correct. The old shinobi learned how to manipulate their and others' spiritual energy long ago when the Sage of Six Paths came to teach them. Each of their hand signs is connected to the different emotions and elements of their chakras. Because their power comes from the combination of the power of their chakras, they are much stronger than the average bender. In this way, it is clear that all the elements working together is more powerful than any one can ever be."

Aang nodded and began to meditate on this.

- - -

"Naruto, you have indeed gotten stronger," Kakashi said to his student. "Almost to the point where we are equal."

The blond ninja rubbed the back of his head. "Aw, it was nothing."

"Well, you needn't get cocky," the white haired jounin said, lying prone in bed from the fatigue caused by his use of his mangekyou sharingan's kamui technique. "Listen, Naruto... if you want to have any chance of accomplishing what you want, you'll have to be stronger than me."

"E-eh?" Naruto said. "That's... I mean, I don't..."

"That rasengan of yours," Kakashi said. "It's not a complete jutsu."

Naruto could only look at him questioningly. "What do you mean?"

"With a technique like that, there are two parts to it: form and element. For instance," Kakashi said, "My lightning blade is shaped in the form of a blade and imbued with lightning. Your rasengan, however, is only form. Granted, it is perhaps the most perfect form an attack ninjutsu of that sort has ever had, but it is still only half a jutsu. You have already learned that your affinity is wind, and have even learned airbending. Therefore, I think your training should be to figure out how to infuse your rasengan with the wind element."

"How am I gonna do that?" Naruto asked. "I have enough trouble just making the rasengan. I need to weave all that energy together so tightly and it's without any hand signs... I at least need someone to help me out!"

"I have that taken care of," Kakashi said.

"You're laid up," Naruto said stubbornly. "There's no way you can train me like this."

"I didn't say it would be me," Kakashi said with a sigh. "I have a friend who will help you out. He may also be able to help you with your... unique problems."

"Ah, I guess that means it's time for me to introduce myself," said a man entering from the window. He had short black hair and his face was framed by protective headgear. His eyes were also very piercing and a little unnerving. "You may call me Yamato for now. My senior here asked that I help Naruto out with his training, so that's what I'm going to do."

"Eh?" Naruto said. "A substitute? That's great."

The black haired jounin stared deep into Naruto's soul. At least, that's how it seemed to him. "Isn't it, though?"

"Y-yes, Yamato-sensei!" Naruto said with nervous enthusiasm. "I'm looking forward to learning from you!"

The Zuko and Sakura both backed away from the two, not wanting to be the target of that gaze in any way.

"Oh, and... Ogura, now, isn't it?" Kakashi said to the masked boy. "You'll need to train as well. We won't settle for a ninja of Konoha staying at your level of ability. Your new teacher will be waiting when you leave the building."

Zuko nodded, wondering who these ninja would have gotten to train him. It didn't matter, though. He needed to become stronger if he was going to either avenge or rescue his uncle, and the power of ninjutsu seemed to be the way to do it. They all bid Kakashi a good rest and headed out.

When Zuko exited the building, he looked around, but didn't see anyone. The other three ninja left him to wait for his new teacher, leaving him rather bored for a few minutes. He couldn't believe that he was being made to wait. What kind of lazy, oafish teacher would be so unpunctual?

"Well, well... if it isn't the Blue Spirit. I hadn't thought one of the Fire Nation's most wanted criminals would be hiding right under their noses."

Zuko turned and gasped at the face before him. "Uncle?" A tear formed in the corner of his eye, though he blinked it back. "Uncle!" He rushed forward and embraced Iroh. "I thought you were... well..."

"I know, Zuko," Iroh said.

Zuko paused. "Wait..." He backed up and patted Iroh's torso. "What... what happened to you?"

"Oh, yes," Iroh said, smacking his rock hard stomach. "I thought it was about time to get back into fighting shape. After all, I'll need to be if I want to complete your training properly."

"Complete my training?" Zuko said. "So you're...?"

"That's right, Prince Zuko," Iroh said with a wink. "I'm finally going to teach you the advanced techniques."

- - -

The sharingan were a powerful tool, capable of copying any technique and performing nearly inescapable genjutsu. Orochimaru first felt the full brunt of this power back when Itachi Uchiha had joined with Akatsuki. He couldn't believe that a whelp of fourteen could have trapped him in a paralyzing genjutsu with those spectacular eyes. Even more, he had cut off his arm with no effort.

"All your jutsu are powerless," he had said. "Against these eyes."

That was when Orochimaru's desire to possess those magnificent orbs had been cemented. Even more, however, was his desire to defeat those eyes. But as long as he was forced to rely on his own sight, that would never be.

Orochimaru would greatly enjoy involving the haughty child in his trap. He slithered in the shadows of a dimly lit office, waiting for his current quarry to acknowledge his presence.

"Yes, what do you want?" the green clad man asked in a smooth, deep voice.

"Lord Long Feng," Orochimaru said acquiescently. "We have reason to believe that a rogue ninja is within the walls of Ba Sing Se."

Long Feng snorted. "Has he made any trouble?"

"No Lord," Orochimaru said. "However, we believe that this rogue is, in fact, an S-class criminal involved with the Akatsuki Organization."

"Akatsuki!" Long Feng growled. "Utter filth. At least they took those two jinchuuriki off our hands. However, I can't allow such powerful rogue ninja roam about my city freely. What do you know of him?"

"He is currently traveling with companions of the Avatar."

"Ah, yes... I remember them. They tried to seek unauthorized audience with the Earth King. I should have known they would just be more trouble for me down the road."

"He is in his early twenties with black hair and dark eyes. His face is lean and handsome though it is marred by pronounced bags under his eyes. He is a very calm and composed individual with a deep, soothing voice not unlike your own."

Long Feng ignored the flattery, but realized that he had seen this man among the Avatar's companions. "Very well. I think I'll have to send a squad of my Dai Li Black Ops agents to greet this Akatsuki. Hm... it may be necessary to send a few squads of my elite Rock ninja as well." He nodded to Orochimaru, still garbed in his Dai Li uniform. "Very well. You're dismissed."

"Thank you, Lord Tsuchikage..."

- - -

Sokka parried Itachi's thrust to his heart and struck back fervently. Itachi was conservative in his technique, mostly blocking attacks and pressing only hard enough to challenge Sokka's defenses. The Uchiha was fairly impressed with the water tribe boy's creative fighting style. He effectively utilized the advantages of the terrain, and could also make his own advantages from the tools he had available. In short, the boy knew how to fight dirty.

Itachi knew some self-indulgent warriors who would say such a thing with disdain. However, Itachi had known the true sting of war, and in reality one could not afford to be noble in a fight for one's life. Though Sokka's technique could still use work, and his physical strength and speed weren't quite as up to par as they could be, the fact that he grasped this basic truth and instinctively knew where to look for his advantages gave him a big advantage over many of the seasoned fighters he might come up against who were too self assured to throw dirt in an enemy's eyes.

"That's enough for today, Sokka," he said finally. The boy had been fighting past his limit, and if they continued he wouldn't be up to a decent day's training, tomorrow. They cooled off for a few minutes and then began to head back to the house that had been provided them.

"I know it's only been a few days," Sokka said. "But I think I'm really feeling like I've gotten much stronger."

"You have," Itachi said. "And I can see your confidence has increased tremendously. You will find that oftentimes what a fight comes down to in the end is one's certainty of victory and will to push through any obstacle or discomfort."

"I get ya," Sokka said, his hands placed firmly on his hips as he strode beside the Akatsuki.

Itachi's head twitched ever so slightly. "Sokka... go ahead without me. I've some business to take care of."

Sokka agreed and left the young man there. Itachi stood silent for a moment before speaking. "Well, if you're going to ambush me, now would be the time."

Several metal gauntlets and bladed projectiles suddenly came at Itachi from every direction. The shinobi drew his wooden sword and parried and blocked every strike, in the process reducing the weapon to splinters. He tossed it aside. "Nice first try."

Rock ninja emerged from all around, three squads of four if Itachi counted correctly. One squad blitzed his position, forcing Itachi to run interference with his kunai. When one got too close, he executed the form for a fireball technique, blowing it with great force from between his lips, burning the foolhardy attacker. Another attempted to assassinate him from behind, but the Uchiha grabbed his arm and flipped him around into the path of thrown shuriken, and then snapped the man's offensive limb. He then freed the man of his sword and engaged two others who came at him from either side with their own bladed weapons. He blocked the attacks for a moment before maneuvering one attacker to the other side of him and pushing him so his blade went through the gut of his partner. He then decapitated the shocked shinobi.

In the space of fifteen seconds, a whole squad of shinobi lay incapacitated or dead at Itachi's feet. The other two squads held back, pondering their own course of action, no doubt. One squad's members disappeared from view, obviously setting up to take advantage of some kind of distraction. Itachi stayed ready.

The next squad of ninja were more measured in their approach, choosing to attack him with long ranged earth jutsu. Itachi let them attack, waiting for them to grow weary of missing. He saw one's concentration become lax and he tossed a group of shuriken. He prefaced it with an illusionary technique which presented the shuriken as becoming birds, but these birds flew slightly ahead of the actual weapons, causing the shinobi to dodge in all the wrong ways. He was struck square in the center of his forehead.

One of the others began to become more aggressive in her attacks, possibly out of some emotional attachment to the one Itachi had just killed. The young man used that aggression to lure her closer to him. He discreetly placed an explosive tag as he feigned retreat, and activated it the moment she leaped over its location.

He decided to press his advantage, now, and created two shadow clones. He took one with him into battle and left the other to stay behind and pretend to let its guard down. As he thought, two of the shinobi from the other squad decided to take advantage and attack, one from below and one from above, but Itachi had created the clone with an excess of fire element chakra energy, and used it now to make it spontaneously combust, killing the two.

Itachi made short work of his target, though his clone ended up being driven back and then killed by a kunai thrown by another member of the hidden squad. Itachi didn't mourn the loss as he had created it weaker for just the reason of drawing out another hidden foe. He disappeared, himself, in a cloud of smoke and quietly snuck to the location to where he imagined the enemy would retreat after realizing he had been spotted. He was correct in his assumption and quickly assassinated the shinobi.

The shinobi had by now, of course, realized that Itachi was more clever than the average enemy, so an explosive tag had been set pending his arrival. The Uchiha was fortunate enough to have spotted it, however, so instead of getting close in order to kill the man, he used a small dart gun he had tucked away in his Earth Kingdom cloak. The man exploded upon death, drawing the final two shinobi toward that location.

For Itachi's final attack, he sent out a flurry of shuriken toward his two enemies. They dodged, of course, but Itachi guided the weapons on thin but strong strings, which wrapped around both ninja and tied them to wooden posts. His hands blurred and he shot twin streams of flame from his mouth down the strings, barbecuing them.

Itachi dropped to the ground, still tense. Those weren't the last of them, he knew. Though the others were much more subtle, he had noticed at least one extra presence while fighting. Where there was one, there were probably more. As he suspected, a trap was sprung. The earth beneath his feet began to tilt, and he leaped into the air to avoid being caught in some underground prison. However, as he reached the apex of his jump, metal gauntlets came from either side of him and caught his wrists, pulling them to his sides. There were Dai Li agents on the rooftops, one on either side of him. Then two more gauntlets gripped his legs from below, pulling him into a "T" pose.

Another man appeared below Itachi, with a green hat not unlike the Dai Li's, but this one emblazoned with the symbol for Earth. The man looked up, and the Uchiha could get a good look at his face. It was Long Feng, the Earth King's personal advisor and de facto ruler of Ba Sing Se. Itachi smiled slightly, but not enough for his captors to see. He knew that this would be a very enlightening imprisonment.

- - -

"This is the last chakra isn't it?"

Guru Pathik nodded. "Yes. Once you open this chakra, you will be able go in and out of the Avatar State at will. And when you are in the Avatar State, you will have complete control and awareness of all your actions"

"Let's do this," Aang said confidently.

"The Thought chakra is located at the crown of the head. It deals with pure cosmic energy and is blocked by earthly attachment. Meditate on what attaches you to this world."

Aang imagined Katara practicing graceful waterbending moves, her body moving lithely and flowing like a river. Then he saw her leaning against a tree, looking completely ravishing. He then saw her face moving closer to his as their lips drew together like magnets.

"Now, let all of those attachments go," Pathik said. "Let them flow down the river. Forgotten."

"What?" Aang said, startled. "Why would I let go of Katara? I...I..I love her."

"Learn to let her go," Pathik said calmly. "Or you cannot let the pure cosmic energy flow in from the universe."

"Why would I choose cosmic energy over Katara?" Aang asked stubbornly. "How could it be a bad thing that I feel an attachment to her? Three chakras ago, that was a good thing"

This was why Pathik found it such a chore to train young boys. Their hormones made it far too difficult to hammer into them the difference between love and attachment. "You _must_ learn to let go," he said firmly.

Aang lowered his eyes, uncertain. Then, after a moment, he looked back to Pathik, determination in his eyes. "I'm sorry, but I can't let go of Katara."

"Aang, to master the Avatar State, you must open _all_ the chakras," Pathik explained. "Surrender yourself."

After another moment, Aang reluctantly agreed. "Okay, I'll try." He closed his eyes to focus, and inside his mind, he could see mountains beneath a starry sky. The heavens began to spin around as if the world were turning in fast forward, the stars blurring streaks that disappear behind the mountains.

"Now, think of your attachments and let them go," Aang heard the guru say. He could see Katara in his mind's eye, now, and she was drifting back toward the horizon to finally vanish with a twinkle of light. The heavens ceased their dizzying motion.

Pathik's voice was encouraging. "Let the pure cosmic energy flow."

An aurora blossomed in space, and Aang, floating in midair, found it solidifying into a radiant bridge beneath his feet. Turning from the world below, Aang saw a massive spectral doppelganger standing above snaking path, its tattoos and eyes shining with the light of the Avatar State. Aang set off carefully toward it, awestruck. As he neared the feet of his ghostly double, his own tattoos begin to shine with light. The giant spirit began to descend, a bubble of light shimmering between its fingers. Stepped into the cocoon of light, but suddenly he heard someone shout in pain.

Aang turned to see Itachi in a dark place, being mistreated by men in green and black uniforms. He was hissing in pain, but refused to give into whatever torture they were inflicting on him. He then saw a vision of Katara, frightened, and then a vision of another familiar face which seemed insane with rage. Was that Jet? Could he be coming after his friends for revenge? Desperate for answers, Aang leaped from the hands of the apparition, and the sphere of light vanished. Behind him, the great entity faded from sight as he rushed back down the path. It too began to dissipate, until it disappeared completely, plunging him screaming toward the world.

Aang's eyes snapped open as he abruptly came out of his meditative trance. "Katara... and Itachi are in danger! I have to go." He got up and turned to race away.

"No Aang!" Guru called after him. "By choosing attachment, you have locked the chakra!" Aang drew to a stop, considering what he said. "If you leave now you won't be able to go into the Avatar State at all!"

Aang thought about this for a moment at the edge of the roof. However, after that moment was over, he made his decision and leaped down to mount Appa. Guru Pathik closed his eyes with a mournful expression, fearing that with this act all may have been lost.

- - -

"A firebender," a tanned youth reflected. "In Ba Sing Se..."

"Jet," his diminutive companion said. "We... we agreed we were going to try to start over. We shouldn't get involved in this."

Jet shook his head. "I know, but... this really doesn't sit well. Those guys... there's something wrong about them. I think I might trust them less than the firebender." He turned to his archer friend with the prominent nose. "What do you think, Longshot?"

Longshot didn't say a word, but looked at his friend with a stern expression, glancing for a moment at toward the scene they had just witnessed. Jet didn't need to be told anymore. His friend had always been a heroic and noble sort, contrasting much with the attitude his freedom fighters had held. Beyond that, he had great wisdom.

"I understand," Jet said. "Smellerbee. Longshot. Let's split up and trail these guys to wherever their hide out is." He pointed with his hook swords the directions they were to go, and in a moment they were quietly pursuing the mysterious Dai Li and their captured fire wielding shinobi.

- - -

Danzou didn't respond immediately when felt a presence appear in his private quarters. If it was an assassin, he would already be dead. If it was one of his subordinates, they could wait while he finished his cup of sake. He turned slowly to find his very best operative from the now-defunct Root department of Anbu Black Ops.

"Sir," the pale boy said without emotion. A normal state for this one. "The target has been located." He unloaded a few scrolls, showing them to his superior.

After Danzou looked them over, he confirmed. "Yes, this is indeed him." He closed his eyes a moment. "Kakashi's team will be heading there soon. I will speak to... Tsunade. I believe I may be able to insert you on this next mission, as well."

"Thank you, Lord Danzou," the young man said, his voice devoid of any sound of gratitude.

"For this mission, you will go by codename: Sai."

- - -

Naruto struggled as he tried to maintain the integrity of his rasengan as well as bend the air around him into it. It was very frustrating, however, trying to bend two things at the exact same time. If only he could do hand seals to ease the process. With hand seals, pure spiritual energy and the elements could be fused completely with ease. That was what made elemental ninjutsu so much more powerful than normal bending, even if it wasn't as versatile. Naruto felt his frustration rise, and foreign power began to rise up inside him.

"Yamato sensei!" another Naruto shouted. "This one's going Kyuubi!"

The black haired jounin leaped to Naruto's aid, his eyes glowing blue as he performed several hand signs. He put his hand forward and chakra energy spewed forth into Naruto's body, suppressing the demonic spirit. He put his hands on his hips and said sternly, "You have to stop doing that, Naruto."

The several Naruto clones dispersed, leaving a single Naruto behind. "Aw, but it's so much easier to bend energy with the fox. Maybe this is just one of those techniques I need it for."

"No," Yamato said. "I'm sure it isn't. It's just going to take a lot more concentration."

"Why are you so against me using the kyuubi's power, anyway?" Naruto asked stubbornly. "It's not just 'cause you have a grudge against it or something, is it?"

"It's not that," Yamato said. "Listen, the others are reluctant to tell you, but I think you should know. Do you remember when you were trying to unlock your final chakra? Then you blacked out and Jiraiya was badly injured?"

"Y-yeah..." Naruto said.

"That was you," Yamato said. "Though the fox may give you power, the more power you use the more you'll lose your personality to the nine tailed beast. It doesn't care about your friends. It just wants destruction."

Naruto said nothing, shocked. "I... I guess I figured that might have been it," he said, finally. "I just... didn't want to accept that."

Yamato nodded. "I can understand the temptation, though. Especially trying to create a technique like this."

"Yeah," Naruto complained. "I mean, doing elemental jutsu is no big deal if you use hand seals, but trying to bend two things at once is... well, I can't split my attention that well!"

"I see. It would be like trying to look left and right at the same time."

"Yeah..." Naruto said, trailing off. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. "Wait a minute. I _can_ look left and right at the same time." His face suddenly broke into a wide grin.

- - -

"What in the world are you?!"

An apparition with the cracked blue mask of a lion-turtle stood above the man and his troops, flames dancing around him. "I am the Blue Spirit..." it said with a cold, inhuman voice.

One of the other members of the squad drew a knife and tossed it with deadly accuracy at the Spirit, but the blade passed clean through its head, embedding itself in the wall behind. The Blue Spirit faded from sight and reappeared directly in front of the soldier. "Augh!"

"Don't..." the Blue Spirit said.

"You... you aren't a spirit!" The commander growled. "You're just a man playing tricks!" He lashed out with streams of fire which passed right through the Blue Spirit's body, knocking his subordinate out. The Blue Spirit began to appear all over the room, at least twenty of them at one time. The commander, in a fit of rage over this man who had destroyed his refinery, began to launch powerful fire balls at each one, causing more damage than even the Blue Spirit himself had. Finally, when every apparition had disappeared, the commander stood in the midst of his soldiers, all defeated at his hands.

The Blue Spirit's blades suddenly appeared from behind, pressed against the commander's neck. "You will leave this refinery... this village... and you will never bother this place again."

"Y-yes," the commander said with tears in his eyes. "Whatever you say, Great Spirit. Just... please don't kill me!"

The Blue Spirit released him, and then before he could react, the Spirit whipped around, striking him with a spinning hook kick that knocked him into unconsciousness. The masked man walked out of the destroyed compound calmly, as if merely taking a midnight stroll.

"I took you here so we could train in relative privacy," a familiar voice said. "Not so you could start attacking military outposts."

Zuko removed his mask and looked at his uncle. "You... you knew?"

"Of course I knew," Iroh said easily.

The scarred boy turned away. "They were harming this village. These... these are _my_ people. I can't turn my back on them when they're in need."

Iroh smiled. "I understand, nephew. Though I do wish you had thought things through a little more, at least you got some good practice on your clone technique."

Zuko scratched his head abashedly. "Yes... do you think... now that I have enough control to make those that I'll be able to use lightning?"

"I don't know, nephew," Iroh said. "It requires quite a bit of control to bend lightning. As it is, the clone technique is fairly easy in terms of control. This is almost as difficult as genjutsu to learn." He stroked his beard slowly. "However, I do know of a place where you may gain some insight into what it is that has you... so off balance."

"Really?" Zuko asked hopefully. "Where is that?"

Iroh looked sideways at Zuko with a mischievous expression. "You know the stories of the Sun Warriors, right?"


	16. Going Under

**Elements of War**

**Chapter 15  
Going Under**

"You will tell us all you know about Akatsuki and your mission here."

Itachi looked deeply into his interrogator's eyes. The man was garbed in a dark green Dai Li outfit and his aged face was crisscrossed with scars. He was an easy victim for his sharingan's genjutsu; however, there were other shinobi hidden away, watching for any escape attempt. Not that Itachi wanted to escape quite yet. "I have nothing to tell you, sir."

The interrogator snarled and placed his hand on Itachi's chest. The young man felt his airways grow tight and his breathing became labored. The man was using some technique to swell his bronchial tubes. "You would do well to cooperate. How about you tell me your name to start?"

"Call me Lee," Itachi wheezed.

"Boy," the interrogator said warningly. "I can affect more organs than just your lungs." He grabbed his belly. "What is your mission?"

"My mission is to procure information as to the quality of your city's tea. So far, I find it lacking." He lurched as he felt his guts twist inside him. Bile flowed up his esophagus and spewed from his mouth onto his interrogator's arm. "My apologies," he said. "Something doesn't seem to be agreeing with my stomach."

The interrogator pulled away and wiped his arm in disgust. "That's enough of this for now. We'll pick this up in a little while.

Itachi smiled as the interrogator stalked out of the room. They had been trying to break him for some time now, but Itachi was more than capable of holding out. Besides, he might not have been able to escape unnoticed with his sharingan, but he was certainly able to influence his interrogators to hold back unknowingly. Not only that, he had been able to learn far more from them about the situation than they had from him. It seemed that the corruption of Ba Sing Se went all the way to the top, and that meant the Avatar was in trouble.

- - -

"He hasn't been back since yesterday."

Aang frowned. He had just made it back to Ba Sing Se, and it seemed his vision had been mostly accurate. Itachi was obviously in trouble. "We have to try to find him. Maybe we can talk to the Earth King and convince him to put out a search party."

Sokka shook his head. "Nah. No need to try for him, again. That Long Feng guy and his Dai Li won't let us near the king." He held up a piece of paper. "Look! I made posters!"

Aang stared blankly at the image. "Is that an... onion?"

"No," Sokka replied plaintively, looking over his handiwork.

"Bad drawings aren't going to get us anywhere," Katara said. "If he's really being tortured, we have to help him as quickly as possible."

"Don't worry," Kisame said. "Itachi would die before allowing any sensitive information to be extracted."

"The dying part is what I'm worried about," Katara said. She turned and scowled at him. "Surely you're worried about his safety. You're his friend, aren't you?"

Kisame laughed. "I'm sorry, but ninja aren't allowed the luxury of tying themselves to this world with bonds of friendship."

Katara looked warily at him. "That sounds horrible."

"It is…" Aang said. "I don't think I could ever do that."

Kisame's face, though still grinning, seemed to soften around the eyes. "It's not a pretty thing, but sometimes we have to sacrifice things for the greater good." He laughed. "Well, anyway, if we're going to look for him, we should go now."

As the four made their way into town on a sweep of the city, a new duo was entering the city of Ba Sing Se. All who saw them assumed them to be refugees. Granted their looks were strange, but the war had brought all types from all over the Earth Kingdom. The dark skinned one with the piercing green eyes leaned close to his fair companion, whispering, "Hey, Hidan, it's the two tailed jinchuuriki we're after. If you let your guard down, you'll be dead."

Hidan smirked at the masked man at his side. "Kakuzu, you don't have to say a thing like that. I'd rather she kill me and get it over with." He chuckled. "We've tracked her down this far, and now I'm getting bored."

"It was unfortunate to discover that the former host from Kumogakure…"

"I think they called her 'Nii' something or other."

"Yes, 'Nii Yugito'," Kakuzu said. "To think she was killed fourteen years ago… our information was quite flawed."

"That's right, and I was hoping to fight a mature jinchuuriki," Hidan said. "Not some brat who probably doesn't know enough to put up a decent fight. I wanted some destruction and mayhem!"

"That's enough, Hidan," Kakuzu said. "You're getting too excited about this. We're simply here for retrieval."

"It goes against the very core of my faith, is all I'm saying," Hidan said, clutching his prayer beads which bore the image of a triangle encapsulated within a circle. "Jashin demands carnage. It's a major violation of the dogma to leave someone only _half_ dead." He snorted. "I can't get myself into an assignment which is such a major violation of dogma. Now that I think about it, maybe it's better that it's some brat. If the kid gives up and I don't have to fight, then I'm not technically breaking dogma."

Kakuzu sighed. "Whatever. My contact in the Dai Li has informed me that our target can be found in Iwagakure…"

- - -

Long Feng was currently going over several intercepted messages before deciding whether they would reach their destinations or if they would be filed away for… information purposes. He was rudely interrupted, however, when a boisterous old drunk crashed into the Earth Shadow's office.

"'Ey, Lil' Feng!" the red-clad man shouted. "Long time, no see. I hear yer the Tsuchikage, now!"

"Yes…" Long Feng said crossly, not looking up from his work. "You are correct, Roushi, that I am now the leader of the Dai Li, the Rock Village, and Ba Sing Se. As such, I think I am deserving of more respect than being called… 'Lil' Feng'."

"Hmph," Roushi said with a grin on his face. "Aw, Lil' Feng, I knew you when you were this big," and with that he held up his thumb and forefinger about a decimeter apart. "A poor little brat who failed the gennin exam two times before getting in!"

Long Feng turned and looked at the old man. His fiery red hair was tied up in a ponytail and his beard was full and bushy. A leather helmet with the village insignia emblazoned across the forehead protected his head and a metal guard went across his nose. His bright violet clothing was offensive to the Earth Shadow's eyes. "I'm surprised you're back from the Fire Nation already. I thought you'd gone there to… train…"

Roushi laughed. "Yer right about that. And I did better 'n' I thought. Place is riddled with volcanoes, and it gave me a chance to figure out how to fuse my two elements together. Youton!"

"'Lava style'?" Long Feng asked. "Well… that's interesting."

"You don't know the half of it," Roushi said. "The four tails' power…"

"Lord Earth Shadow," a new figure said. The old man jumped in surprise as the Dai Li agent lithely glided into the room. "It seems that the prisoner is withstanding the interrogation unusually well. We know where his companions are, and the Avatar has joined them. Request permission to apprehend…"

Long Feng stood and studied his subordinate. "I'm sure they might have some information that would prove useful, though I doubt an Akatsuki would give full discretion even to the Avatar." He turned his back to the two men now crowding his office. "Somehow… I think it would be more worthwhile to interrogate the man who seems to know so much about the activities of Akatsuki… namely…" His foot twisted and the earth buckled beneath the Dai Li agent's feet. With a twist of his hips and a flourish of his arms, Long Feng called the earth to swallow the man up to his head. "You."

He walked over to the Dai Li agent, whose head was lowered and shrouded by the green cap. "Did you honestly think I wouldn't realize that I had an infiltrator in my ranks? I know each and every member of my village down to their smallest quirk." He reached down and grabbed the Dai Li hat. "And you, I'm afraid, are completely unfamiliar to…" when he lifted the hat, he was shocked by a horde of green snakes that began to slither from beneath them. All that was left was skin that looked like it was shed like a snake from a human head. "What…?"

"You are perceptive," the voice of the false Dai Li agent said from behind him. "But I suppose that's natural for a Kage who deals so intimately with deception."

Long Feng turned and saw a pale man with long, dark hair and evil golden eyes. "You… you're Orochimaru, aren't you? Yes… I know all about you." He smirked. "You were apart of the 'Legendary Three' of Konoha, so named during your fight with the legendary Hanzou of Hidden Rain village located in the Foggy Swamp. You were trained by the Third Hokage, Sarutobi the Professor. Your parents died at an early age, which probably fueled your obsession with immortality, the experiments with which were the result of your expulsion…"

Orochimaru laughed. "Your information is good. I'm actually impressed. Even the Bingo Book wouldn't have all that information." His grin turned stony. "However, I'd like to clear up that last bit. My quest for immortality has nothing to do with mommy and daddy issues. No, that's ridiculous! I seek total knowledge, and to do that I need more than just one lifetime."

"Of course," Long Feng said.

"'Ey, Snake Eyes," Roushi said. "Correct me if I'm wrong… but weren't you wearin' some black robes with red clouds on 'em at one point, yourself?"

"You've run into the Akatsuki, before, then…" Orochimaru noted. "And you're still alive?"

"I saw 'em comin'. A fishy guy with a young punk. I managed to high tail it out before they caught wind of me," Roushi said.

"'Fishy guy'?" Long Feng asked. "Yes… I think that very man was with the Akatsuki we captured."

Orochimaru shrugged. "It's no mystery. If you want to know who he is, I can tell you."

"Then I'd suggest you tell," Long Feng said.

"Your prize is of great value to the Leaf Village, but also to me," Orochimaru said. "A missing nin from that village of great importance. An Uchiha."

"Itachi…" Long Feng concluded. "Yes, I'd read a report on him. Supposedly his eye's genjutsu is inescapably powerful…" He turned to Roushi. "Make yourself useful and tell the guards there to blindfold him! It's a wonder he hasn't escaped already with power like the sharingan." He turned back to Orochimaru. "The things I've heard about those eyes…"

"Most are true," Orochimaru said. "Though telling the future… that's an exaggeration."

"Of course," the Earth Shadow said. "Now what to do about you… I can't have such a powerful missing nin running around…" He snapped his fingers and metal claws on chains burst through the walls, binding the serpentine ninja.

Orochimaru laughed. "Well, it's as expected of the leader of the Rock Village." He nodded his head. "Release me."

"What?" Long Feng asked. "Do you really think I'll just…" he trailed off as the chains loosened and fell off the snake shinobi. "Dai Li!"

"No need to shout," a man clad in the Dai Li robes said as he seemed to melt out of the shadows of the room. "We're right here." He took off his hat, revealing a sharp toothed grin. Several other figures also dressed as Dai Li also appeared, each with an unfamiliar face.

"More infiltrators…" Long Feng realized. "Well, it seems security has become a little too lax."

"Please," Orochimaru said. "We are your allies in this. The Akatsuki and the Avatar can only mean trouble for your puppet government… and our plans require the elimination of both."

"My enemy's enemy…" the Tsuchikage said. "I see. Very well, then." However, Long Feng was not the leader of the Rock ninja by virtue of naivety and goodwill. _The fools_, he thought, _have given away their biggest advantage. Now that I know who they are I'll be watching them._

- - -

Jet wandered the streets with his two compatriots, looking for any sign of the Avatar or his friends. "I don't know, Jet," Smellerbee said uneasily. "They didn't seem too happy with you last time we met. They might… um... not be so welcoming."

"I know," Jet said. "But something about this stinks. I may not agree with the Avatar's way of doing things, but he's the best hope we have, and if that firebender is important to him…" He approached a nearby pedestrian and asked quietly. "Excuse me, you wouldn't have happened to have seen a bald kid with an arrow tattoo, a girl with blue eyes and hair loopies, or a surly guy with a ponytail, have you?"

The pedestrian turned around, and Jet was a bit taken aback by his piercing green eyes. His face was covered, which seemed a bit suspicious, but maybe he was just sick. "Hmm… I may have seen something like that… follow me." He gestured to the three to follow him and his light haired companion. Jet became more suspicious when they led them into an alleyway.

"Um… wait a minute…"

The green eyed man seemed to disappear and then he was behind Jet, grabbing his neck. "So, you want to find the Avatar, eh? Jet?"

"J-Jet!" Smellerbee shouted. She and Longshot tried to come to his aid, but tendrils came from the green eyed man's cloak and entangled them.

"How do you know me?" Jet asked.

"There's a bounty on you and your friends' heads," he said. "It's not much, but as treasurer I find it my duty to gather as much wealth as I can."

"Should I just kill them, now?" his companion asked.

"Fine, Hidan," Kakuzu acquiesced. "They're worth the same paltry fee either way."

"W-wait!" Jet said. "You know the Avatar, right? I have an important message for him! It's about his friend… the guy with the long ponytail and… and the red eyes!"

Hidan advanced on the young man, brandishing a muttering a silent prayer as he held his prayer beads and eyed his prey menacingly. "That's fine. We'll pass along the message."

"Tell us," Kakuzu said. "What is your message?"

"His friend's been captured," Jet said. "They came from everywhere…"

Hidan pulled a large scythe from somewhere as he finished his prayers and raised it over Jet's head.

"Wait, wait!" Jet said. "I know where they took him! If you kill me or either of my friends, you'll have to find it yourself!"

Kakuzu held his hand up. "Wait."

Hidan pouted and lowered his scythe. "Aww!"

"Who was it that took this man?"

Jet watched the fair haired man in front of him warily. "The… the Dai Li. They're like some kind of secret police for Ba Sing Se."

"I know who they are," Kakuzu said. "Hmm… I suppose you may be of some use. We needed to get to Old Ba Sing Se, anyway. Come, let's find the Avatar and his allies."

"I still call dibs on killing them after we're done," Hidan muttered.

Sometime later, the five finally came upon two familiar figures. One was blue skinned with filed teeth while the other was dark complexioned with her hair looped from front to braid. When the girl saw them, her eyes suddenly turned stormy. "Jet!" she shouted.

Jet gasped as she began running toward him with the speed of white water rapids. He backed away, shouting, "Wait, Katara, I'm not…" He was cut off when water spewed from the pouch at her side and froze him to a wall.

"Who's this?" Kisame asked with a grin. "Old boyfriend?"

"No!" Katara growled. "Jet… what are you doing here?"

"Hold on, Katara," Smellerbee said. "We… we came with a message for Aang."

Kakuzu cut in. "It seems Itachi has been captured."

"You know where he is?" Katara asked. She glared at Jet. "What did you do with him?"

"It wasn't me!" Jet said. "I… well, see, me and Smellerbee and Longshot all came to Ba Sing Se to turn over a new leaf. I know I went a little… overboard last time."

"Overboard?!" Katara asked. "You tried to drown an entire town just to get rid of some Fire Nation… most of whom were civilians!"

"Yeah…" Jet said. "But, listen, we were just walking around town minding our own business when we saw this guy get ambushed by the Dai Li. He… he did some kind of crazy firebending, but they caught him. We… we followed them and they took him underground. I can show you where."

Katara looked unconvinced. "How can I trust you?"

"Please, Katara," Smellerbee said. "I know Jet hasn't been the most honest toward you, but I promise that we wouldn't lie about this."

"Well…" Katara looked unsure as the words began to sway her, but she looked to Longshot. His eyes narrowed pleadingly. "You're right Longshot. You always did have a silver tongue." She turned the ice liquid and pulled it back into her pouch and then motioned for them to follow. "But I've got my eyes on you, Jet. If it seems like you're going to betray us—even a little bit—I can personally guarantee you won't see Sozin's Comet."

- - -

"I gotta say, jewelry ain't really my thing."

"I understand," Orochimaru said. "However, it's required if we are to continue training you in the shinobi arts."

Toph fiddled with the black earings she had been given as Kabuto poked her with a syringe, injecting her with a silver colored solution. "Yeah, I got that. And it is a lot faster this way, I guess, but I got enough girly at home."

Orochimaru laughed. "I see. Well, you can at least take comfort in the fact that I must wear some as well for this technique to work." He put his hand out to Toph, who was sitting in the lotus position, and reached out with his chakra. "Now, we will begin…"

Toph could feel the vibrations of the cave fade and a new set take their place. She suddenly felt soft dirt and grass underneath her feat and her body was moving not of her own will. She could hear the wind in her ears and voices. Something with which she was slowly becoming familiar happened, as well. Her eyes felt sensations. They could see form almost as well as her feet could, and she saw what she was told was color. Everything was clear.

Orochimaru, as well, began feeling the vibrations of unfamiliar places and heard voices, though he could only see slight variations in light and dark. He did his best to ignore this, consciously feeding his own selected experiences into Toph. She was receiving decades of experience in hours through the connection of their spirits. As time went on it was also becoming easier and more of his experiences could be processed at once. She was quickly becoming as knowledgeable in ninjutsu as he, though he was careful not to let her know too much of his repertoire.

Kabuto mopped the sweat from Orochimaru's face with a rag, as the training was quite physically demanding. Toph's curse mark always activated in the midst of the training, as well, and now it was blazing across her small body. "That's enough, Lord Orochimaru," he said. "Your body will begin to suffer rejection if you keep this up."

"I understand," Orochimaru said through gritted teeth. "My technique is not as refined as our former leader's, unfortunately. Even with these small bits of metal I took from him, it takes quite a bit more out of me to perform this trick." He laughed hoarsely. "But I think we're just about done …"

"Th-thanks," Toph said as she felt the ninja's energy leave her.

"I think you're just about ready to reap the true results of this training," Orochimaru said.

"Yeah?" Toph asked. "You said I'd be stronger than you once I finished, but even though I've learned a lot, I still don't feel that much stronger."

"Sasuke was quite right in bringing you. Your abilities are perfect for what I have planned, and I believe it is necessary for me to enact this plan immediately… before our little Sasuke does something foolish."

"What do you mean?" Toph said, confused and tired.

"The leader of Akatsuki possesses a technique in which he can split his consciousness among many bodies," Orochimaru explained. "Watching his technique, I discovered a means by which I could also project my consciousness into another body. However, I could not do it in the same way he could. I was forced to leave my old body behind and completely overtake my new body, for I found it impossible to split myself. I was puzzled as to why this was.

"The answer came when I discovered that the metal our leader produces from his body and inserts into his puppets are what allow him to transfer his consciousness without giving up his original body. Though I cannot perform this technique as readily as he, with preparation I am able to do it.

"I'm afraid I must apologize, Lady Beifong. Our training was pretense. Each time I pushed my consciousness into you, I was merely synchronizing our auras so it would be easier for me to take control." Orochimaru's dark chakra energy swirled about the two of them and Toph's body seemed to draw it toward her like a black hole.

"No, stop!" Toph cried. "What are you… doing?" She could feel him entering her mind again, but this time as an attacker. She felt slithering things crawling all over her, restricting her movement as Orochimaru's presence expanded. Her body burned in pain as her curse mark surged, twisting her body as she entered the second stage.

After only a few moments of agony, Toph's consciousness faded into the background, and her possessed body stood. It was taller, now, and the blank black eyes stared out from Orochimaru's face. This dark skinned, white and black haired, horned doppelganger looked down at its clawed hands, more reptilian where Toph's had been mammalian, and swung its snake-like tail. "It seems to have worked."

"Yes," Orochimaru said. "Now… it's time for you to execute the plan."

"Itachi," Orochimaru's demonic twin responded with a hiss.

"He will escape," Orochimaru said. "Soon. Or Sasuke will find out that he is the one being kept here and go after him. Regardless, if this is the same Itachi I knew, Sasuke will fail. I'd rather not have my new body damaged irreparably. Besides," the snake ninja smirked. "He isn't the only one who has a grudge to settle with that whelp."

- - -

"Well, what'd'ya know?" Sokka said. "There's an underground city underneath Ba Sing Se…"

Aang had just tunneled through the ground where Jet had told them Itachi and his captors had disappeared, crushing the solid rock into fine sand. Before them lay a large cavern with glowing green crystals and a myriad of tunnels winding through the catacombs.

"Alright," Katara said. "Let's go." She led the members of her group, the Akatsuki, and Jet and his two allies toward one of the tunnels, only to have chains seem to fly from everywhere, ensnaring them all. A squad of four Dai Li appeared from the shadows holding the chains.

"Hold it right there, intruders," one of the green clad shinobi said.

Katara, Kisame, and Aang turned transluscent as their bodies liquified into water. Their true selves leaped out the hole they had come through, Aang firing a gust of wind as Katara took hold of the three liquifying water clones and turned them into a triple water fang attack. The four shinobi held their ground, a quick succession of hand gestures turning their bodies as immovable as their village's namesake. Kisame, however, had leaped into the air, coming behind one of the elite shinobi and bringing his sharkskin sword down on him.

The Dai Li collapsed, his collarbone snapping from the shear weight of the blade. The other three turned and attacked him with a combination of earthbending and earth-style ninjutsu. The blue skinned man allowed himself to be struck, but kept his blade mashed down on the one he had struck. "Fools… my sword will absorb all your chi and leave you dried husks." His victim lost his grip on his chain, and Kakuzu's bonds were suddenly loosened enough for him to move.

"I suppose I should finish this," he said smoothly.

With a series of hand gestures, wind began to swirl around him and then surrounded one of the Dai Li in a bubble. The Dai Li agent began to clutch at his throat as if he couldn't breathe, and in fact he could not. The attack was a vacuum bubble which created an almost unbreachable wall of air around the victim while sapping the air from inside. The Dai Li agent even tried to tunnel underneath, but the bubble extended below the surface, serving to completely trap the elite shinobi.

Almost immediately afterward, the shinobi launched another jutsu, this one fire, upon a second Dai Li agent. This attack created small glowing lights like fireflies which swarmed the victim. Their touch burned flesh, but the Dai Li's flesh had already been turned like stone, so he brushed them off as he attmpted a counter attack. Suddenly, the small points of light erupted into an inferno, explosions surrounding the agent on all sides.

Finally, Kakuzu launched an earth-style jutsu which caused slender but durable stone spikes to erupt from the earth, pinning the last agent in. Some of the spikes pierced his arms and legs, but Kakuzu intentionally avoided all vital points. At that point, the other jutsu had done their work, and left the group with unconscious but still living foes.

"You didn't kill them," Hidan complained.

Kakuzu glared at his partner. "You know that Pein will not tolerate needless death. We will only kill if the situation warrants it.

Hidan frowned, looking at the Avatar, who smiled at the dark skinned, green eyed Akatsuki. Yes, the leader's orders had been quite clear. There was to be no needless death in front of the Avatar. While the kid would accept killing from others if it could be justified in self defense, his pacifist nature would make impossible for him to trust those who showed the ability to kill without reason. Hidan considered this philosophy nothing short of blasphemy against his god. However, he hadn't had to directly confront anyone, and so not killing them was not a violation of the letter of his law, even if Hidan couldn't help but feel he was violating its spirit.

"We'll need to go," Kisame said as he lifted his sword off the Dai Li agent he had attacked. The man was unconscious as well, having suffered both broken bones and having his energy sapped out of him. "Quickly. The rest of the Rock will know we are here by now."

"Okay," Aang said, joining the others in a mad dash toward one of the tunnels. "But there's one thing I was wondering… Mr. Kakuzu… um…"

"How am I able to use more than one element?" he said, finishing Aang's question. "It is true that the Avatar is the only being who can naturally use all the elements. However… my abilities are not entirely… natural." He left it at that.

- - -

Azula breathed in slowly and then exhaled. She raised her foot and planted it firmly on the wall in front of her. Then, sure of her grip, she swung her other foot up and placed her other foot upon it. She began to put one foot in front of the other, her body fighting the pull of gravity as she walked diligently up the vertical incline. Making it to the top, she turned and walked back down, smoothly returning to the ground.

Ty Lee clapped enthusiastically while the other members of the team made their own less ardent gestures of approval. Sasuke nodded as he approached the princess. "For one who has never before studied the ways of ninjutsu, you have mastered the control of your chakra energy quickly." His eyes drifted downward as he spoke.

Azula had taken the heavy tunic of the Dai Li off for training, as she found it quite a bit less comfortable to train in than her regular armor, and now her torso was bare except for the strip of cloth wrapped around her modest bosom. Sasuke imagined that the average teenager would be distracted by the pleasant pinch of her cleavage peeking out of the top of the wrapping, but that was not something by which he would allow himself to be distracted.

Sasuke moved forward with his hand outstretched. "Azula, this…" his fingers touched her chest just below the collar, and the princess instantly reacted by grabbing the young man's wrist and tossing him to the ground.

"Lord—I mean, Sasuke!" Karin shouted. "How could you do that?" _With her instead of me_, she thought.

"What's the meaning of this?" Azula said harshly. "A servant such as you is not to invade my personal space!"

"Forgive me princess," Sasuke said from the floor. "But that marking on your chest…"

Azula looked down. There were indeed several symbols adorning her chest in a circular pattern, but they seemed to be fading. "I… I'm not sure…" She pulled Sasuke up from the ground and stared him straight in the eyes, her regal disposition on full. "You know something about this mark, don't you?"

"It seemed familiar, but it was already fading when…"

"Then I demand that you examine my chest more closely," Azula said. "And tell me exactly what is going on."

Sasuke glanced aside at the assembled team members. "Perhaps this would be something better done in private…"

Azula nodded. "Yes… go on, then. Leave us be."

"O~okay," Ty Lee almost sang. "Don't you two get too wild, now!"

"No, wait!" Karin cried as Suigetsu and Juugo dragged her away with them. "We can't leave him alone with that cra—I mean, with Princess Azula. You don't know what might happ—"

"What were they going on about?" Sasuke asked with a hint of annoyance on his face.

"I really have _no_ idea," Azula said, genuinely confused. She turned back to the shinobi. "Now… would it be better if I removed…?" Her hands began to tentatively pull down on the front of her wrappings, but Sasuke's hands shot out.

"No!" he said quickly. He winced as he realized that in his haste to stop her from flashing him, he had inadvertently squished his palms right into her breasts. He swiftly withdrew the offending limbs. "My apologies," he said and then cleared his throat nervously. "I think I should have a clear enough view even with the wrap."

"Of course!" Azula said, her face red even through her makeup. "What should I do to make it appear again?"

"I think it responds to your use of chakra," Sasuke said. "Try to focus the energy into your feet again, just like before."

Azula nodded and did so. Dust puffed out from under her feet, and the black markings slowly began to appear on her chest.

Sasuke stared intently at the emerging pattern. "It's a seal… no, three overlapping seals. It looks as if the first one is meant to draw in and contain some kind of power or presence… the second… that would allow the energy contained to escape back into your own chakras, though I have to say it's a bit sloppily done. The third looks like it would cause a feedback, effectively damming what energy the second would have allowed through. That's… that's not good."

"What?" Azula asked.

"A triple seal like this would cause a massive buildup of energy. Eventually, a thing like this…" Sasuke looked up at Azula. "It would break. And most likely all that backed up power would consume you."

Azula's eyes widened as she remembered. _Blue flames spread over her leg and across her body and she couldn't control it. Azula felt the hot embers on her skin, burning it to her nerve endings, and she knew pain like she had never before. She was being burned alive._ "I… I've been having nightmares," she admitted after several long minutes in silence.

"Nightmares?" Sasuke asked softly. "What do you mean?"

"Ever since I met your brother," Azula said. "He did something… showed me horrible things. I saw myself being burned alive. I felt it. Among other things…"

"My brother," Sasuke said darkly, "Has a knack for showing people things they would rather not see."

"I thought perhaps he had just constructed some kind of fantasy as torture for me," Azula said bitterly. "But… there are some things that don't seem possible for him to have known… and I wonder if somehow there was some kind of warning in that… nightmare he gave me." She shook her head. "I'm beginning to sound like my senile old uncle!"

"No," Sasuke said. "There may be some truth to it. The sharingan… it's a bloodline trait that allows us to not only see into the flow of the spiritual, but is also designed to manipulate the spirits of others. The illusions you see can be constructed from imagination or they can be memories from the caster… or they can be your own memories… your greatest fears brought to the surface."

Azula looked into Sasuke's eyes, feeling her throat threaten to close up on her. She felt afraid. Afraid that she might spontaneously combust, afraid that she might find herself disfigured and powerless… most of all, she was afraid of being left with no one to whom she could turn. She had never felt these kinds of emotions before. "Can you fix it?" she asked.

"I… I can try," he said. "But that seal is unfamiliar to me, and I'm afraid Orochimaru has neglected to teach me the finer points of fuuinjutsu."

"What about…" Azula hesitated. "The nightmares?"

"I…" Sasuke began, unsure of himself.

At that moment a Dai Li agent with a deep scar on the side of his face burst into the room in a panic. "There are intruders in the village!" he shouted to them. "They say it's the Avatar and Akats…" he trailed off as he saw the scantily dressed girl standing so close to that other Dai Li, and in private… "Uh… I'm sorry, don't mind me. You two just… go about your business."

Azula turned, her earlier worries evaporating. "You said the Avatar's here? Then you will take me to him!"

"B-but, your tunic…" the scarred Dai Li said, suddenly cowed by the ferocity in the girl's eyes.

"Quiet," Azula said, grabbing the green clothes off of the ground. "You will obey my commands without hesitation or _I_ will not hesitate to snuff you out!" She walked up to the man as she said this, putting their faces inches apart, her hostility practically searing his flesh.

"Y-yes, ma'am," he said weakly. He bowed to her and led the two of them out of the cavern.

Sasuke gazed sidelong at Azula, a bemused expression on his face. "That was somewhat impressive," he said.

"What was?" Azula said. "I only told him the truth."

The three reached the large main cavern of the village, a cavern so large it housed entire buildings, including the Tsuchikage's main office. It quickly became obvious where the intruders where, not only because of the masses of Dai Li and Rock ninja swarming as the civilian and in-training populations fled, but also because of the multiple explosions coming from one area of the town. When the reached the source of the conflict, they could see the Avatar flanked by the two water tribe children and three Akatsuki.

"That's Hidan and Kakuzu," Sasuke said. "Both apparently very difficult to kill. But what would they be doing here…?" He looked suspiciously at Kisame as well. "And if Kisame is here, where is…?"

- - -

Several miles from the village hidden in the rock was the interrogation and reprogramming center of Lake Laogai. It was here that Itachi, now blindfolded, hung limply in chains as he was watched by two Dai Li agents who had been sent to keep watch over him after it was discovered that he possessed the nearly extinct bloodline trait of the sharingan.

It was assumed that the guards would protect the village from the prisoner should he escape, but the true threat in this case came right from the village. Three shuriken glinted in the torch light as they whistled out of the shadows. The middle shuriken struck Itachi right in the middle of his head and at the same time struck down the guard on his right. The left guard, however, raised his hand, covered in hard stone, and he caught the shuriken easily.

"I hadn't expected you to be so forthcoming. I had a suspicion you were involved in this… Orochimaru…" The guard removed his hat, revealing Itachi's mangekyo sharingan.

"And I had a suspicion you would do something like switching places with one of your guards," Orochimaru's voice came from the darkness. "That sharingan of yours does make you formidable, but your tactics are also predictable." A dark skinned, white and black haired Orochimaru stepped out of the shadows, his eyes completely black and unseeing.

"As are yours," Itachi said. "Taken a new body? I see you took much from your time with Akatsuki."

"More than you know. That's the difference between us. You believe you don't have anything more to learn from your peers. That's why the sharingan is wasted on you. At least your brother makes full use of his, even if his motives are impure," Orochimaru said. "But unlike you, I learned much about the abilities… and the limitations of the sharingan." He raised his clawed hands and gestured downward, causing rocks to fall from the ceiling upon the torches, extinguishing them and plunging the cavern into darkness.

The moment the darkness came over him, Orochimaru could feel the vibrations of the metal shuriken that Itachi tossed toward him. The cursed seal of this body had enhanced Toph's natural ability to sense the vibrations of the earth to the point that even blind, Orochimaru could feel the earth in the flying metal more acutely than he could ever see them with his eyes. He also felt Itachi's footfalls as he attempted to run around him. He seized the shuriken midair with a gesture and sent them flying back toward Itachi.

Itachi cried out as two of the shuriken struck him in the arm. He stumbled back onto the wall, but recovered quickly. He, too, was not completely incapable in the dark. As a shinobi he had been trained extensively in blind fighting. He heard the slight shifting of Orochimaru's foot, and moved toward it, making the signs of a fire technique.

Orochimaru could sense far better in the dark, however. He felt the rhythm of Itachi's footfalls and twisted his foot, causing the earth to buckle around him, and as Itachi put his foot down he found that it moved out from under him, causing him to stumble. He then extended his arms out and snakes sprang forth from his sleeves.

Itachi had taken a proactive step, however, and a wall of stone rose up from the ground. The snakes bashed their heads against it and fell to the ground limp.

"Earthbending…?" Orochimaru said hesitantly. "The sharingan can't copy my power like this…"

"It seems you know less about the limits of the sharingan than you thought," Itachi said with a laugh. "Even my foolish little brother wouldn't know." Having collected himself in his brief reprieve, Itachi executed a quick jutsu. It was known as the fire soul technique, and it would effectively coat him in an intense fire. It was meant as a protective technique, though it was also utilized as an offense. In this case, however, it lit up the cave, which was normally a disadvantage that would cause him to shun the technique, but now worked to his favor. He dashed from his hiding place, spotting the shadowy snake in the flickering firelight, and tossed three shuriken which where glowing red from the flames.

Orochimaru felt the younger shinobi move and the metal projectiles coming at him. He easily halted the shuriken with his metalbending, but he was caught momentarily unawares as a barrage of fireballs crashed into him, burning his flesh and knocking him backward. He slipped out of his skin, quite literally, using his own serpentine brand of substitution jutsu, and slithered across the darkened corners of the cave in an attempt to flank Itachi. However, Orochimaru's blindness was still a disadvantage in that he could not see when the light exposed him. As he silently began his strike, he was again caught off guard when Itachi turned and leaped right into his attack. The flaming coat surrounding Itachi began to burn the snake shinobi, causing him to hiss in pain and struggle to escape.

Itachi smirked. "You're still not—" He was cut off when several shuriken impaled themselves in his back. They were burning hot from passing through the sheathe of fire as well, instantly melting his flesh to the metal as they pierced him. It was Orochimaru's metalbending again. He grunted, but held Orochimaru fast. However, Orochimaru had only needed to distract him enough to attack with the appendage about which his foes always seemed to forget. Itachi was forced to let go when he felt the biting steel of the kusanagi sword cut into his chest and he leapt back before it could puncture deep enough to cause a fatal wound.

Orochimaru laughed and attacked with two large stones from the walls, one of which grazed Itachi's face, though he dodged the second. The younger shinobi recovered and focused his firebending to the soles of his feet, blasting away like a rocket toward one of the walls. He connected with it, drawing Orochimaru's fire. Then, keeping a bead on his foe, he leaped and activated his mangekyo sharingan again. His flames went out and he felt the wind lift him up, allowing him to glide unnaturally above the floor. He then punched out toward Orochimaru's last location, sending a torrent of wind barreling into the snake ninja.

Itachi winced, letting his sharingan go as the left side his head pulsed painfully. He had used the mangekyo too many times, and now his eyes were suffering for it. He performed the fire soul technique again, as quickly as he could, but when the flames surrounded him, he couldn't see his attacker anywhere. All around him thick dust hung in the air, blocking the light from penetrating more than a few inches. He remained perfectly still and extended his senses as far as they would go, searching for any disturbance in the dust.

Finally, he saw a human-like shadow emerging from the dust in his periphery, and he launched a searing burst of flame at the incoming object; however, as he attacked he saw a disturbance coming from his left side. There was a glint of metal and a hot flash of pain in his right attacking arm, and suddenly it was gone.

Itachi stumbled back, noting only for a moment the charred wound at the end of his elbow that used to be attached to his forearm before turning his attention back toward Orochimaru, who was retreating back into the dust. He had fooled him with the corpse of one of the guards. It was a genin move, and one that Itachi had, to his shame, fallen for. However, it was more annoying that Orochimaru had used such a technique on him. He expressed his irritation with shuriken.

The young man didn't wait for the shuriken to make their way back to him, activating his mangekyou sharingan once more, feeling the sharp twinge in his eyes as he did, and with a gesture blew the dust and any incoming projectiles away before igniting a flame to light the cave once again. He had to get out. The odds weren't in his favor this fight. He saw the door to the cavern and rushed toward it, but suddenly a large chained metal slab arose from the ground, summoned by Orochimaru. He activated his mangekyou again and black flames washed over the metal. These were the flames of Agni, and in theory they could burn anything they touched to ash. This metal, however, seemed to be specially warded against his flames, and was unaffected.

Orochimaru cackled as stone snakes erupted from the ground to ensnare Itachi. The snakes bound his arms, legs, head, and torso, and then he was pinned to the ground. He struggled feebly for a moment before realizing it was pointless. He was trapped. "How pitiful you are without the advantage of your sharingan's hypnotic power. Soon you'll be like this all the time." He laughed again and clapped his hands as if he had just thought of a hilarious joke. "I don't know if it will be soon enough, naturally. How's this, then? I'll let you live, but I'll take your eyes instead of Sasuke's. I'll be doing your little brother two favors!"

Itachi disregarded the snake shinobi's ranting, his mind working on a way out. There was only one answer he could conceive now, though it was very risky. However, having his eyes ripped out was no good alternative. His eyes shifted to the mangekyou sharingan once more, his entire head now pulsing with pain from the exertion. He could feel blood gushing from behind his eyes, but he ignored it. He stared up at the dark ceiling intently. Aside from the door, every other wall was enforced by many, many meters of solid stone. However, the ceiling was fairly thin in comparison.

"Agni…" Itachi whispered.

"What was that?" Orochimaru asked with confusion.

The ceiling exploded darkly. In spite of the flames' great heat, neither shinobi felt anything of it. However, they did feel the water that began to leak on them from above. Itachi managed a weak chuckle. The only thing about opening the ceiling was that there was quite a lot of water above. They were, after all, under a lake.

"You suicidal idiot!" Orochimaru said with a hiss as the ceiling collapsed, allowing a wall of crushing water to descend upon them.

However, Itachi wasn't about to let himself be drowned. "Susano'o!" he shouted, and an armor of wind sprang up around him moments before the water crashed down around him.

- - -

"Where is Itachi?" Aang shouted as he blasted through the rock shinobi with gale force winds.

"I could ask you the same, Avatar," Sasuke said, landing in front of the bald child and countering his swipe with the mirror of his technique. "What happened to my brother?"

Aang scowled but didn't answer. This guy was dressed as a Dai Li agent, obviously allied with them. He should know exactly what happened. Aang leaped at him, striking at the older boy with incredible speed. After a quick exchange, Sasuke managed to take Aang's back and swiped at him with his straight sword. The dirt from the ground sprang up instantly, blocking the blade and giving Aang just enough time to turn and strike Sasuke in the gut.

_That technique,_ Sasuke thought. "You've trained with Gaara?"

Aang looked in puzzlement at the hanging dirt. "No…" he said. "But I did have his bijuu inside me for awhile…" He smiled. "Hey! I guess I learned how to sandbend from the one tailed thing."

"Very good," Sasuke said. "But I've fought Gaara before… and I'm much stronger." Sasuke disappeared from Aang's sight and the next thing Aang knew, a fist was coming in from behind at great speed. The dirt around him sprang up again to block, but Sasuke punched through his defense, connecting with Aang's head, sending him flying.

Aang rolled with the punch and came up punching air. Sasuke managed to dodge the bursts of wind and used his great speed to flank Aang, but this time the Avatar was ready. He couldn't rely on the instinctual sand shield that he had picked up from the one-tail. Not only was Sasuke faster than that, but Aang couldn't move the sand on its own as quickly as the one-tail could. His instincts were fast, but the one-tail granted actual dual focus. Instead, Aang relied on good old airbending to lift himself into the air and twist himself around. His quick movement forced Sasuke to readjust, giving Aang just enough time to counter with his staff.

Sasuke slashed at Aang with his sword as Aang parried with his staff. The young shinobi pushed his younger foe back further and further, but the boy's reach with the staff was longer than his own, and his speed was enough that he was able to prevent Sasuke from flanking him again. Aside from that, the Avatar was managing to land weak but cumulative strikes with his airbending at the same time he was defending with his staff. Though Sasuke shrugged them off now, he knew such a situation was untenable.

"Prepare to die, senpai!" Suigetsu shouted as he swung his blade down at Kisame's head. The blue skinned ninja's own large, bandaged sword came up to block before a powerful burst of water came from the side to knock Suigetsu away. Suigetsu growled as he looked over to the water tribe girl who was using Mist village techniques. "Hey, stay out of this! This is a kohai to senpai fight!"

"Then why," Katara shouted as she smacked a Dai Li agent out of her way. "Don't you," she water whipped another two. "Call off your friends!" She arced the water overhead and slammed it down on one Dai Li who was coming up right behind Kisame.

"Hey, I'm not giving the orders here," Suigetsu said calmly, hefting his sword in one arm that bulged with muscle.

Katara barely dodged a pair of knives that came whizzing toward her. She saw another young woman dressed as a Dai Li. Her eyes were cold.

Sokka chose that moment to stumble between them as he bludgeoned several rock ninja into unconsciousness. Ty Lee followed closely, overtaking the pack of rock ninja and deftly dodging Sokka's club strikes. She giggled as she jabbed at her with her fingers. "It's like we're dancing," she said flirtatiously.

Mai rolled her eyes and sighed as they passed, which gave Katara ample opportunity to whip a stream of water at her. She dodged just barely dodged and tossed a handful of knives right back. Three arrows intercepted the knives halfway.

Kakuzu, meanwhile, was tossing Rock ninja and the Dai Li Black Ops around like ragdolls. His objective was around here somewhere. The host of the two tailed cat. Hidan was trailing behind him, taking care to merely dodge any attacks that came his way so he didn't have to kill them. Jet was fighting a small distance away as well, fending off ninja and Dai Li with his skillful use of the hook swords.

Azula was staying back for now. It wasn't in her nature to expend unnecessary energy fighting, and the only enemy she saw that mattered right now was being engaged by Sasuke, who was certainly capable of wearing the Avatar down if he couldn't actually capture him. If that were the case, she would be waiting to swoop down.

However, Kakuzu didn't seem to agree with her as he continued his rampage right through her position. She leaped aside and irately fired several blue blasts at him, knocking him back. "Fool," she said derisively as he shook off the surprisingly powerful attack. "Do you know who you're messing with?"

Kakuzu eyed her with his jade eyes. He began to laugh menacingly. "I believe I may. Those blue flames… the Nibi is known for its blue flames."

"The what?" Azula asked, before snorting. "Never mind. I don't really care."

"Then you must be…" Kakuzu continued. "Princess Azula of the Fire Nation." He stood still among the unconscious bodies of the rock ninja he had previously been pummeling and held his hands together, ready to begin performing hand seals. "It is my mission to capture you for the Akatsuki."

"The Fire Nation princess?!" Jet said with an angry growl. "Someone like that is better off dead!"

"Don't worry," Hidan said to Azula with an air of disappointment. "We can't let you die… yet."

Azula sprang into action at once. These peasants weren't about to capture anything, least of all the Fire Lord's daughter, who was second in power only to the Fire Lord. She attacked all three simultaneously, flipping into the air and sending fiery barrages flying from her fists and feet. They fell back as she continued her flowing dual attack. In a flourish of sparks, she then brought her fingers together and released twin bolts of electricity, striking each Akatsuki square in the chest before they could react.

Hidan cursed as he panted heavily, staring at the black char mark on his chest. "What…the Hell… was that?" He glared back up at Azula, gritting his teeth. "That's it, Kakuzu! I have to kill her!"

Azula, in a rare moment for her, hesitated. "What… what are you?" She turned around and looked at the dark skinned Akatsuki, who also looked only mildly perturbed.

"Immortal," Kakuzu said. "For the most part." He laughed dryly. "You should be proud, though. You turned my heart into ashes. Not many can do that. However," He let his cloak drop to his feet and four masks rose from his body attached by those black tendrils. "I still have four more."

The thunder had prompted Sasuke to turn, gasping slightly as he saw Azula attacking the two Akatsuki. He shouldn't have gone after the Avatar so recklessly, he told himself, and left his liaison open to attack. Even such an attack, Sasuke knew from Orochimaru's intelligence, wouldn't be enough to kill those two.

Aang took advantage of the momentary loss of concentration on his opponent's part. He jabbed his staff into Sasuke's solar plexus, causing him to double over in pain. He then brought the staff to bear on the Uchiha's head before spinning the other way and sweeping low to take his feet out from under him. He then leaped into the air, dropping his staff and weaving his hands around, ensnaring the air around him and forming it into a large ball of swirling wind. He then planted his air scooter directly into Sasuke's face.

Sasuke blindly performed his hand jutsu and fire poured from his mouth, much blowing right back into is face, but some being caught up and intensified in the whirling ball of wind. Aang leaped off the air scooter when his feet began to burn, and Sasuke found himself free, if red in the face.

Aang stared down the sharingan wielder. He saw Sasuke glance back at Azula and the Akatsuki, and then he said. "Listen, if you want to go help your girlfriend, I won't stop you…"

Sasuke stared impassively at Aang for a moment. "My interest in Azula is only pragmatic. I have no bonds. Friendship and love… these will only make you weak." With that, he turned and dashed toward Azula, and Aang took the opportunity to help his own friends.

Ty Lee had incapacitated Sokka for the most part, now, and now seemed to be actually dancing with him, twirling him about like a rag doll. "This is so much _fun_! We should hang out more… oh, wait, we will since you'll be our prisoner!"

"I'm not liking where this is going," Sokka said impotently.

At that point, Aang stepped in, smacking Ty Lee's wrists with his staff to make her let go and then blowing her away with a little airbending. "Stay put Sokka," he warned as he tossed a few rock ninja that attacked.

"Yeah," Sokka said. He gritted his teeth and tried his hardest to disobey that suggestion, but true to Ty Lee's skill, he found he was fully paralyzed. "I won't move a muscle," he said in acquiescence.

Hidan was faster than Azula imagined, swinging his triple bladed scythe with lightning speed. Kakuzu and Jet both hung back from the savage Akatsuki, the Earth Kingdom boy somewhat stunned at the bloodlust evident in the fair haired ninja, while Kakuzu was merely waiting. "Don't overdo this, Hidan," he said with a bored tone.

"Shut up!" Hidan said, swiftly booting Azula in the chest before leaping after her. His speed was daunting and Azula was helpless as he brought his scythe down on her. The toes of the scythe were a hair's breadth from Azula's flesh when a loud clang resounded through the large cavern.

"Sasuke…?" Azula said softly, seeing the Uchiha standing to her side with his straight sword held firmly against the tang between two of the chines. Her voice dropped an octave as her surprise evaporated. "It's about time. Now get this fool off of me."

Sasuke pushed away Hidan's weapon and twisted his hips, giving the Akatsuki a hard front kick. He dropped his blade to his side and said darkly, "Hidan. Kakuzu. Where is my brother?"

"Ahh," Hidan said smugly. "So it's that weasel's little brother. Heh. I'm afraid you'll have to ask the Tsuchikage that question."

Sasuke frowned deeply. The Akatsuki didn't seem to be lying. It seemed he would have to interrogate Long Feng after he took care of this. However, he would first take down these Akatsuki. All the easier to destroy his brother if he had fewer allies getting in the way.

Elsewhere in the city, Mai found herself being backed into a corner by a long faced archer. Every knife she could throw he could counter with his arrows, and that tiny guy was incredibly effective at keeping the other ninja off of him. She soon found her arm pinned by the sleeve to a wall, quickly followed by many more which completely incapacitated her. She struggled, but the arrows were stuck tight and she wasn't about to expend all her energy ripping out of her clothes so she could fight in the buff. No, thank you.

The other ninja in the area were swept away by powerful gusts of wind and blasts of water as the Avatar made his entrance. "Longshot, Smellerbee," he said. "Let's go help Katara and Kisame!"

Mai sighed as she slumped against the wall. She sure hoped everyone else was having more fun. And she had thought Omashu was boring…


	17. Misdirection

**Elements of War**

**Chapter 16  
Misdirection**

Roushi guzzled another cup of booze and sighed. He had delivered the Rock Shadow's message to that Daybreak boy's guards to blindfold him and then had booked it to the nearest pub. In his lifetime, he had found that the best elixir for his frazzled nerves was right here. However, all that racket outside was not helping matters at all. "What the blazes is going on?" He snorted. "Those Dai Li Black Ops. Buncha little whelps. Back when the Third was runnin' things, the Dai Li were fierce. The tenets of fire that Avatar Kyoshi founded the Dai Li on ran strong! Now, though…"

"Well, maybe if you were out there, the job'd get done a lot faster," a small, withered figure in the corner said. "After all, who trained you?"

"Eh?" Roushi said belligerently. "I ain't got nuthin' to do with this place. Why bother?"

"What do you know?" said Roushi, eyeing the old man suspiciously.

"Feh," the old man said. "A few years out of a job and no one recognizes you anymore. Didn't I train you?"

"Sandaime?" Roushi said. "I thought you were short before, but you've actually shrunk!"

"Bah!" the old Tsuchikage said. "That Long Feng forced me into retirement. He's a shrewd one for a kid who graduated last in his class. Always said he'd be Tsuchikage, one day, but damned if I thought he'd actually do it."

"Eh, well, whatever's going on here, I got nothing to do with it…" the red bearded shinobi said gruffly. "My usefulness ended when the treaty was signed. I'm just a weapon, right?"

The Sandaime Tsuchikage folded his arms. "It's a shame about you an' Han. Maybe I should've done more to help, but though the jinchuuriki were shunned, you still have a duty to your people, don't you?"

Roushi snorted and averted his gaze.

- - -

Naruto and Yamato entered the secret Konoha outpost. This was where Team Kakashi was supposed to meet for their next mission, which was to infiltrate Orochimaru's hideout via the information obtained from the Akatsuki member Sakura had defeated. This outpost was one of many transport stations established throughout the globe during the secret ninja wars that had been waged alongside this hundred year world war, though now they were used for high ranked private missions rather than waging war.

Naruto stiffened as he felt before hearing the whizzing of shuriken behind them. He turned and swung his arm fiercely, wind whipping out and turning the projectiles back on their owner. A dark red cloaked figure emerged from the shadows, dodging the counter, and came at Naruto with a sword. Naruto blocked with a kunai, but then the stranger came about with another sword. This time Naruto caught the attacker's wrist and then headbutt him in the face.

The attacker fell back, his hood falling back to reveal a cracked blue mask. Naruto clutched his forehead in pain, which was bleeding due to the mask's sharp points. "Looks like you got me," the Blue Spirit said.

"Ow… yeah, but what's with that mask? It hurts a lot more to hit that than your face."

"Well, that's one point for the mask," the disguised Zuko said.

"Perhaps the other is to hide some hideous disfigurement?"

The three men looked over to see yet another figure in the shadows. This was a pale boy, almost completely white of skin, but with coal black hair and eyes. His outfit was also black, though it was most revealing, even exposing his bare belly.

"How do you do, lizard face?" the boy said to Zuko in a cordial manner. "And you, too… no-dick."

"What?" Naruto growled.

Zuko merely rose and whipped his blades around before settling into attack position.

"No need for violence," the strange boy said. "I was watching your display and I have to say… you both have grave need of improvement."

"That's it," Naruto said. "We're gonna flatten you!"

Zuko and Naruto both charged the pale young man, and Zuko brought his swords within striking distance of the shinobi's head. Flames burst between their faces, stopping them in their tracks.

"That's enough, boys," said a stocky figure from the darkness. It was Iroh, dressed in green Earth Kingdom styled robes.

"You're lucky he was here to protect you," Zuko said petulantly.

"I'm not protecting him," Iroh said. "I'm protecting you."

Zuko looked down to see that the shinobi had drawn his sword and was holding it to Zuko's stomach, ready to plunge inside. His face paled beneath his mask.

"My apologies," the boy said. "I am called Sai, I just wanted to meet my new teammate."

"T-teammate?" Naruto said. "This jerk?"

"Starting from this mission, I am to be a member of Team Kakashi."

"No way," Naruto said.

"Hey, Naruto," a new, female voice said. "Don't be so belligerent."

"Sakura…?" Naruto said, seeing the pink haired kunoichi approach. Flanking her was her master Tsunade and Jiraiya. "Why don't you tell this guy? He's a jerk."

"Jerk or not, he's still our new teammate, right?" Sakura turned to Sai and smiled. "Pleased to meet you, Sai."

Sai smiled impassively. "Hello… ugly."

"That's it," Sakura growled. "I'm gonna flatten you!"

"Wait a minute, Sakura!" Tsunade said, holding her pupil back. "Remember what you just said?"

"Strange, I read in a book that it was customary to give one's friends and colleagues… 'nicknames,'" Said said.

Zuko leaned over and grabbed Sai around the shoulder. "Well, buddy, let me give you a little advice. If you're going to get along with a girl like that, I'd suggest you stick to flattery."

"So I should lie to them," Sai said, his face going completely blank as he considered this. "Interesting."

"Alright, we don't have time for this," Yamato said. "I'm taking you three," he gestured to Naruto, Sakura, and Sai. "On this mission under my command. Iroh will take…"

"Ogura!" Tsunade said, before suppressing a giggle.

"Iroh will take Ogura under his command on a separate but parallel mission," Yamato finished.

"Odd," Sai said. "I was unaware that we would have a former crown prince of the Fire Nation working with us." Zuko stiffened, fearing that his identity had been compromised. "Prince Iroh, former general of the Fire Nation Army and holding honorary rank of special jounin in Konoha. Aren't you also wanted by the Fire Nation?"

"It's of no consequence to us," Yamato said. "After all, while we may be loyal to the Fire Nation, we have no inherent responsibility to turn in one of our own."

"I doubt very much the Fire Lord would see it that way," Sai said. "After all, someone who would turn his back on his people is the worst kind of scum. Though I suppose if one wants to find someone like our weak, compost-headed Sasuke, it would take one of like mind…"

"Hey!" both Naruto and Zuko growled in unison, once again approaching the pale shinobi with malice.

"You little creep!" Naruto growled, cracking his knuckles.

"You hold him down and I'll gut him," Zuko said with dark humor.

"Hold it, you two," Sakura said, stopping them with an outstretched hand. She turned to their newest team member. "The important thing here is teamwork," she said, smiling. "Since they don't know you well, they said too much." She bowed politely and said, "I'm sorry. Please forgive Naruto and Ogura."

"Think nothing of it," Sai said, his empty smile still plastered on his face. The expression vanished suddenly as he found a fist buried in his cheek. He went down like a sandbag.

"On the other hand…" Sakura said, glaring spitefully at Sai. "Me, you don't have to forgive."

Sai struggled to his knees, wiping blood from his chin. "Well… that smile of yours fooled me. I'll have to remember you can do that."

"Don't talk about things you don't know," Sakura said. "Otherwise, I'll have to pound your face again."

Suddenly, a wooden cage sprang from the ground, trapping the four young people inside. "Ahem," Yamato said. "We _could_ spend all night with you locked in a cage working out your differences…"

Sakura looked at the wooden bars suspiciously. He had just made wood sprout from the ground. There was only one shinobi about whom she had ever heard who could use wood style, and that was her master Tsunade's own grandfather, the First Hokage. But he was dead, and his special ability had been unique to him. _Then how can he…?_

"Or we can all play nice and stay a night at a hot springs resort instead of camping out in the woods," Yamato finished. Then he shot a frightening glare at the four, one that would send Koh the Face Stealer scurrying away. "I strongly suggest the hot springs."

"Ooh, I do too," Iroh said, beaming as if he hadn't just seen the terrible death glare.

- - -

Kisame crashed through the building, propelled quite forcefully by a jet of water. His junior was quite skilled, he would give him that. Even with Katara fighting with him against Suigetsu, the boy was holding his own and had managed to get in a few decent blows. He would still lose, of course, but not for lack of talent.

The blue shinobi looked around him after he had landed. He seemed to have crashed into some kind of bar. As in breaking a bar in two. He looked to his left and saw a wrinkled old man staring down at him with a grumpy but unimpressed look on his face.

"You got water in my beer," said a voice from behind.

Kisame looked to his right and into the face of an old man with a fiery red beard and equally colorful hair tied up into a ponytail. As the fishy Akatsuki looked into the man's eyes, which had begun smoldering like liquid hot magma, a flash of recognition came over him. He grinned a toothy grin. "Yonbi…"

The man's face look shocked, then nervous, but then settled with a tense grin. "You're one of those Akatsuki, ain't ya?"

"That's right," Kisame said, rising from the broken bar. "And, coincidentally enough, capturing the Four Tails… is my assignment."

Outside the pub, Katara was exchanging blows with Suigetsu. Kisame had weakened the young man quite a bit, but he was still operating a bit beyond her ability. That, and she had been slashed several times already and was beginning to feel a bit tipsy from the blood loss. "Kisame!" she shouted behind her as she bent triplet water fangs around and back toward their caster.

She was answered by the pub quite simply blowing up. Flames engulfed half of it while water ripped the other half apart. In the middle of it, barely visible, a black cloaked fish man and a purple garbed rock ninja fought single mindedly against one another.

Suigetsu scowled. Killing his senior was supposed to be _his_ job, not some flaming old idiot. He hefted his huge sword and began to make his way toward the two clashing ninja. However, his way was impeded by that water tribe girl who had been making such a nuisance out of herself. He decided he would oblige her request for his undivided attention.

Meanwhile, not far away, Sasuke parried a scythe strike from Hidan. He was barking orders at the Dai Li and other shinobi around him, and, though they at first questioned his authority, any doubts about his leadership abilities were quickly put to rest. Several of rock ninja were able to ensnare the Akatsuki, though there were a couple casualties incurred. This gave Sasuke enough time to drive his straight blade right through Hidan's heart.

"Was that it?" Hidan said after a moment. He laughed, sending a chill through Sasuke. "Heathen! You don't understand others' pain at all… but Jashin will show you the light." He shook off one of the rock ninja and grabbed the sword, pulling it out of his chest. Then he lifted Sasuke, who was still holding onto the hilt tightly, off of the ground and threw him back a great distance.

Laughing maniacally, Hidan shrugged the remaining ninja off of him and then took hold of his great scythe, twirling it around him like a baton of death. Blood rained from the bodies torn asunder by his weapon. Stuff Kakuzu, the leader, and the Avatar's blasphemous pacifism. He was going to honor Jashin this day. He laughed again.

Kakuzu turned his head for a moment as he heard his partner laugh. "Damn it, Hidan," he said. He saw the princess attack out of the corner of his eye, and he blocked the ball of flame that engulfed him, though he sustained some minor burns.

Azula pressed her attack, burning the shinobi's cloak to rags. She heard heavy footsteps approaching behind her as well as a guttural yell. That dirty Earth Kingdom boy was trying to take advantage of her, again.

"Mind if I cut in?" he said as he slashed at the princess.

She took a moment to dodge those hook swords of his and then punched him squarely in the face. "No means no!"

Kakuzu shed what was left of his cloak and quickly performed a series of hand seals. "Raitsume," he said to himself as two electrically charged claws sprouted from the back of each hand. He raised his arms and the stitches attaching his forearms loosened, letting them fly at Azula like missiles.

Azula saw the clawed arms coming for her and parried the left before bending backward under the right. They collided with the stone wall of the cavern and the electricity discharged into the stone before Kakuzu pulled his arms back. The claws had dissipated after having unleashed the lightning, and now Kakuzu summoned them again.

The Fire Princess watched the quick hand signs carefully. They were very fast, almost too fast for a normal person to see. Azula, however, was anything but normal. She smirked and decided to play with this Akatsuki at his own game. She repeated each hand signal exactly as she remembered them, feeling her chakras flowing.

Simply repeating shinobi hand seals would never be able to reproduce a ninjutsu spell, of course. The nature of the symbols was to self hypnotize. Certain mental states would be reproduced with each unique sign, and it was the opening and closing of the chakras which caused the energy flow needed to perform a certain technique. This was why some clans had their own unique hand symbols and why some shinobi could perform a move with a single sign if they had conditioned their bodies correctly. Iroh had become conditioned after much close contact with the shinobi of Konoha and had secretly trained both his son and Zuko to respond certain ways to specific signs when they were young as well. The old general, however, had never had the chance to teach Azula when she was young, and after she had gotten older, he had thought better of it.

Azula _had_ been training with Sasuke, of course. However, not even the Uchiha knew why when he began showing her the twelve basic shinobi signs her chakras had reacted as any trained kunoichi's would. He had thought it would take months just to train her psyche enough to do even the most basic technique, but it appeared someone had beat him to the punch, as it were. Azula, herself, had found it most unusual. She recognized some of the emotions attached to the symbols. Anger, joy, contentment. Each had brought with it a brief memory to a point when she had felt these emotions particularly strongly. Some, though, were unfamiliar. A brief flash of that recurring nightmare would come when she formed the rabbit, and her body would tense and her stomach would feel cold and her heart would race. She would feel paralyzed as she held that symbol. She didn't like the rabbit.

Electricity arced through Azula's arms as she balled her hands into fists, and slowly lightning began to project a short way from her fist. However, it was not quite forming itself into claws of any kind, but projected randomly like small, glowing trees. After a moment, she lost the technique and lightning blasted from the backs of her hands into the ground. "Huh?" It was apparent, of course, that there was also more to performing ninjutsu properly than mere chakra flow, as well.

Kakuzu smiled under his mask as he lunged at Azula. "You're no Uchiha, I'm afraid," he said. "But don't fret. It was impressive for one so young."

Sasuke weaved around Hidan's attacks, but he found himself being backed into a corner. He lunged at Hidan, slashing at him in an attempt to relieve him of some limbs, but the fair Akatsuki was slippery and bashed him in the face with the handle of his scythe. He then swung at the boy, but Sasuke spun away, the blade only nicking his cheek.

Hidan paused as the Uchiha hopped out of range. He looked smugly at the blade of his scythe, stained with a small amount of his opponent's blood. "You'll soon learn about feeling others' pain," he said softly as he licked the blade. His skin began to change color.

Suigetsu had Katara on her knees, right where he wanted her. She had fought well, but she was no match for an individual like himself. He held his giant sword up high, ready to bring it down quickly on the panting girl.

A blast of high pressure air caught Suigetsu off guard, and he suddenly found himself face to fist with the Avatar. He didn't look pleased. The boy fought like Juugo in full curse mode, completely unstoppable.

Suigetsu had been impressed with Katara's grasp of some of the chuunin techniques. She was a prodigy, he could see that. The Avatar's waterbending and water style ninjutsu techniques, however, were only adequate, but the boy's brute power more than made up for it. He seemed able to turn aside Suigetsu's A-rank techniques without breaking a sweat.

The sharp toothed ninja, though getting some fair shots in, had already fought hard against two skilled fighters, and the strength of the Avatar was now too much for him. After a brief exchange, Aang hit him hard on the side of the head with a clump of sand before sending him reeling away through a nearby wall with a brunt gale attack.

Aang was at the water tribe girl's side before the dust settled. "Katara!" he shouted. "Are you alright?"

Katara looked up with an exhausted smile as her hands, encased in glowing water, traveled along her battered body, healing her wounds. "I'm alright, Aang. But Kisame…" she looked over toward a cloud of steam glowing red-orange.

Flames vaporized and rock blocked the raging waters coming from Kisame, but the blue Akatsuki kept coming. He brought his sharkskin sword to bear on the older man, and as he battered the jinchuriki with the giant weapon, energy unseen by the naked eye was sapped from him. Roushi caught the sword in his hands, feeling his flesh being shredded by the tiny razors that made up the blade, and as it pressed down upon him, the ground beneath his feet began to glow red.

"A little history about this place," Roushi said. "Centuries ago, this place was once a volcano. Still tons of volcanic rock underneath this here cavern." He grinned. "Rock that can be heated…" His glowing red eyes flared as the ground began to tremble. "And used. By me!"

Lava suddenly burst from the ground all around them, and liquid magma flowed across the ground. Kisame leaped away as it crept toward them, and managed to get out of range. Roushi, however, welcomed the lava, letting it seep up his body. A single long, thin tail bubbled from the magma at the base of his torso.

Kisame created several water clones and then blitzed across the hot ground, steam hissing from his and his clones' feet. The jinchuriki had formed a tail, and thus had unleashed a great amount of his prisoner's power, so now the Akatsuki member had to go all out. He dodged several hot, molten hands that burst from the ground, though his water clones weren't so lucky. He was the only one left when he reached the rock ninja.

Roushi was impressed with the fish man's abilities, but he had been panting before they had begun fighting. However, Roushi noted as he flipped and weaved around Kisame's attacks, he seemed to be catching up to the Akatsuki's level of fatigue rather quickly as well. Something, he knew, was sapping his chakra energy. He reached down into his gut again, and felt the beast's power slip into him. More magma covered his body, creating a thin armor of lava as a second tail bubbled into existence. He began to hammer back at the Akatsuki, leaving minor burns on his flesh.

Kisame was running out of liquid water at this point. The current surroundings had evaporated most of the water with which he had been working up until this point, but he didn't let that or the jinchuriki's sudden increase in speed and strength frighten him. He wasn't an S-class missing ninja for nothing. He swiftly performed a jutsu and the clouds of steam in the air condensed and formed tiny spikes of water that rained down, homing in on Roushi. Kisame retreated a short distance under the cover of his attack.

The water needles were as effective as Longshot's arrows in terms of piercing power, though a combination of Roushi's agility and his lava armor managed to keep him from being damaged too badly. He dodged a swipe from Kisame, but then two more of him came from the side and grabbed him. They hissed as they touched his red hot armor, and then exploded into water. Roushi then found himself surrounded by liquid, which formed into a shell, trapping him.

The real Kisame stood behind Roushi, holding the sphere of water stable. Roushi struggled, but was barely able to move. The lava armor bubbled. "I have him now, Avatar. You must take away his demon spirit, as you did last time!"

"B-but," Aang said. "I don't know _how_ I did it…"

A second tail began to bubble on Roushi, and the lava, cooled by the water, began to shine more brightly. The bubbles of sulphur and evaporated water began to build within the shell. It lost its spherical shape and grew as the heat within intensified. The ground around him, though he was not connected to it, glowed between the cracks, and Kisame could feel the heat rising under his sandal soles.

"You'd better remember how, quickly! He's going to break free!" Kisame said with a hint of nervousness.

Katara quickly intervened, forming a hand seal for the technique and placing her hands on the bubbling prison, adding her chakra energy to it. "It's slowed down, but… I don't know how long we can contain it. Aang! Do you think you could…?"

The Avatar nodded and formed the hand seal, himself, albeit much more slowly than the other two. He curiously noted the feeling of his chakras opening and closing as he made each seal, similar to his training with Guru Pathik. He placed his hands on the shell, as well, and it began to contract as his energy flowed over it.

"Whoa," Kisame said in genuine surprise. He grinned then. "You've got more raw chakra going through this thing than even I could ever manage. I wonder if you could hold this thing by yourself."

Aang looked sheepish. "Well, I don't know… how are we going to beat him? We can't just hold him here forever."

"We can certainly hold him until he runs out of air!" Kisame said. "Then he'll go unconscious. We can handle him unconscious."

Roushi, on the other hand, had other ideas. Within his mind, the beast stirred. _Av... a… tar!_ it groaned. "Looks like it," Roushi commented. "Stop flailing around in there!" _More… power!_ the gurgling voice said. _Kill… Avatar!_ "Oh, no…" Roushi said. "First off, he's just a kid. Don't need to be killin' kids, whoever they are. Second, last time I went three tails I lost all control! What good's the rent if you're the one spendin' it?" _Will… extract me. Kill… you!_ Roushi contemplated this for a moment. "Well… I s'pose when you put it that way…" And then the tendrils of lava began to flow from the prison more freely, completely engulfing the ninja's psyche.

At the same time in the physical world, lava began to burst from the ground and battered the shell that had been created. Kisame cursed. "This isn't supposed to happen!"

The magma flowed through the water prison's membrane, again causing it to bubble and deform. It grew to outrageous proportions as the three continued to try to hold what was now a bubble of pressurized steam back. The membrane began to let off steam in hot bursts all over. Aang winced when he heard Katara scream and felt her chakra energy leave the sphere. "Katar—" he shouted, but then the bubble burst, and he felt the hot steam sear his flesh.

Roushi rose out of the steam, but he was different from before. His whole body was encased in igneous rock, with liquid magma flowing in the cracks. The magma that surrounded his head had been shaped into an ape-like visage. Three red-hot stone tails waved behind him as his burning eyes searched his steam filled surroundings. He saw the Avatar writhing in pain on the ground a short distance away, and with speed that rivaled the Avatar's own, he charged.

Kisame appeared between the oncoming gorilla and the downed Avatar, swinging his blade. The ape-man caught it, so Kisame punched at him with his free hand, but that fist was caught as well, and he grimaced as he felt his knuckled cooking under the scalding grip. It was at this point Kisame noted that this monster was a good head taller than he. His blade was ripped from his hand and he received a strong punch from that sizzling fist.

Kisame cursed as he toppled to the ground. He might have been able to handle even this form if he hadn't wasted so much energy on his junior. Of course, if he had been actively hunting this guy instead of merely falling into his lap, he wouldn't have given him enough warning to get to this point. Regardless, the Avatar was going to have to be the one to take him down.

Aang had already come to the same conclusion. After shaking off the pain of his second degree burns, he faced down the slavering ape. Aang could already tell that it wasn't governed by reason anymore. This was truly the beast within, and he would have to go all out and be prepared for anything.

The beast leaped.

Hidan plunged his dagger into his own heart, and dragged the blade down slowly, slicing cleanly through his ribs and opening up his torso. He laughed maniacally.

Sasuke retched, and blood spurted from his mouth and nose. His own torso had split open as well. His organs were severely damaged as well. Sasuke fell to his knees, realizing what Hidan's trick was. Funny. Orochimaru's data had said Hidan could kill without touching his target. However, now he knew that wasn't entirely true. He only needed his blood. Too bad now he would die without ever…

"Lord Sasuke!" Juugo shouted, catching Sasuke before he collapsed fully. Juugo's cursed form was already half formed. "Hold on. I can help you." He put his hand to the wound, and his cursed flesh flowed into it, repairing the damage. When he finished, Juugo had shrunk and now looked like a young teenager.

Sasuke said nothing, but rose again, his own cursed mark flowing over his flesh. "Alright, then. Now I know what to do."

"Lord Sasuke?" Juugo said.

"Keep him occupied for now. I have to do something."

Juugo nodded.

"Remember, he's immortal, so don't even attempt a killing blow." With that, Sasuke sped away from the fair haired Akatsuki member, leaving Juugo to run interference.

Fire licked at Azula's heels as she rocketed across the floor, dodging shuriken and air blasts, while at the same time keeping Jet's hook swords well away from her. Kakuzu was quite powerful and experienced, but the fire princess was quick and shrewd, managing to fight the Akatsuki to a stand-still, so far, neither landing anything more than a minor blow on the other.

The stale-mate couldn't last, of course. Azula had the crafty mentality that perfectly suited a shinobi, but Kakuzu had over a hundred years of practice, and the benefit of Jet running interference with his hook swords. The princess was unfortunate to have briefly taken her eyes off the ninja while dealing with the Earth Kingdom rogue, during which time he had replaced himself with an illusion. When she crossed the point where he had made the switch, the illusion stepped forward in an attacking pose, causing her to halt momentarily to prepare for a counter or dodge. However, that momentary stop allowed Kakuzu to reach up through the ground and pull her into the ground.

"Stay, kitty," Kakuzu said as he popped out of the ground. "Don't worry. Perhaps the Avatar can take out your tailed beast without killing you… then I can collect on some bounty."

Kakuzu turned and flames danced from his body. Snakes that had been slithering through the air toward him were burned to crisps. "Ah. Itachi's little brother. Is she really paying you that—"

A spiraling helix of stone suddenly drilled into Kakuzu, and in his place a white and green clad figure stood. "I've gotten quite annoyed at this intrusion," the Earth Shadow said.

"Long Feng!" Sasuke said. His eyes narrowed. "My brother…"

"Ah, so you are Sasuke of the Uchiha clan." Long Feng grinned in a way that reminded the boy far too much of Orochimaru. "I'm afraid the other Uchiha has made quite a mess of our interrogation and reprogramming facilities beneath Lake Laogai. Actually, it would now be more appropriate to say it's at the bottom of Lake Laogai at this point."

Sasuke scowled. So his brother had brought a lake down on himself. He'd better not have cheated him out of his vengeance by dying. That wasn't what he needed to focus on, now, however. Kakuzu was not down for the count.

Long Feng stomped his foot, loosing Azula, and then he pulled her up to her feet by her hair. "H-how dare you accost a pr—" She stopped her complaint short, aware that it would possibly be unwise to reveal her identity in the midst of Earth Kingdom forces.

"I'm sure the Fire Lord would forgive me for saving his daughter's life," Long Feng answered back. "Really, you didn't think you could fool the most powerful shinobi in the village hidden in rocks, did you?"

Azula smiled warily.

Kakuzu stalked toward the trio, with Jet taking up a flanking position. Jet's eyes locked on Sasuke, and he charged past Kakuzu, eager to fight someone with an actual sword. Sasuke lifted his sword and blocked the overhead double slash and said, "You're not big on thinking things through, are you?"

Kakuzu leaped over Sasuke and Jet, who were now exchanging lightning quick strikes, and his hands began to form the signs. He landed between Long Feng and Azula and twin gusts of wind flowed out from him, ensnaring the two and lifting them into the air before hurling them sharply down.

Sasuke parried the hook swords away from him, using his sharingan to predict the boy's movements. The Earth Kingdom boy was actually more skilled than he in terms of sheer swordsmanship. His speed was also impressive. However, against the incredible perception of the Uchiha's doujutsu, he was outmatched. Those eyes could see the bursts of energy within the body that proceeded a movement, often before even his opponent knew they were about to move.

Sasuke tired of playing with the Earth Kingdom boy quickly enough, and thrust his blade through his defenses, piercing Jet's shoulder. The boy screamed in pain, but swung his hook sword overhead at the Uchiha. Sasuke caught it in his free hand, but was hit unawares by a sharp kick to the groin. He staggered backward, fuming.

Jet didn't let up. He twirled about, following strike with strike as Sasuke recovered. One of Jet's swords grazed Sasuke's cheek, leaving a line of blood. Sasuke blocked the next strike and channeled his energy through the sword. "Chidori nagashi!" Sasuke announced as lightning flowed around him and into Jet's body. The rogue swordsman flew back from the shock, dropping his swords, and convulsed on the ground. "Che!" Sasuke spat. He looked back toward Kakuzu and his two "allies."

The Tsuchikage was hurling a barrage of fast and deadly earth jutsu at Kakuzu, who had countered with a skin of iron technique. "As skilled an assassin as you are," the Akatsuki murmured, "Your power is nothing compared to mine."

Behind Kakuzu, Azula was making another go at a lightning jutsu. She was aware from the last few times she had attempted it that the lightning seemed to want to emerge across her forearms and elbows unlike Kakuzu's, so she was now focusing on shaping her chakra energy into a blade-shaped circuit there. As she brought her hands together, she could feel the electricity building across her arms, and it traveled up the path created by her chakra energy. In an instant, a pair of bright, crackling blades emerged from her elbows, wavering as she concentrated on her control.

Kakuzu, meanwhile, had launched an earth dragon at Long Feng, who dodged via a rock-based substitution technique. When he reemerged from the ground, he brought with him three rock buzzard-wasps that zipped through the air, firing rock needles from their hindquarters as they went. The Akatsuki let the needles shatter on his now rock-hard skin and shot tiny pebbles at the wasps which caused the beasts to explode on impact.

While he was distracted, Azula leaped toward him, bringing her elbow down. At the last moment Kakuzu raised a wall of stone, which Azula's elbow blade pierced, but stopped short of the Akatsuki's body.

Kakuzu regarded the wavering lightning blade momentarily. "Feh, a technique like that requires less power and more finesse…" Then the circuit of chakra energy broke down and the bolt of lightning shot into Kakuzu's body, through his heart and into the ground. He staggered as his skin of iron faded.

Sasuke leaped forward and summoned twin snakes to attack the Akatsuki. A mere hairsbreadth from the dark skinned ninja, he jerked back and grabbed one, setting it aflame. The other latched onto his neck, but Kakuzu grabbed its head between his fingers and crushed it. The dead snakes retracted back into Sasuke's sleeve.

"That was very good," Kakuzu said to Azula, who seemed stunned that anyone could survive a direct lightning strike. "Even if it was an accident, your ability to learn new techniques without a sharingan is… prodigious." He straightened, and four strange masks rose from his body. "However, you cannot kill me so easily. You merely destroyed my Earth heart."

"That mask," Azula said, looking at one that bore a resemblance to an aged face. It looked familiar.

"Obtained from the late Fire Lord Azulon," Kakuzu chuckled. "I also have my original water style heart, fire style, and a heart I obtained from an air monk."

"An air monk…" Long Feng scoffed. "They've been dead for a hundred years! All that's left are a few air style shinobi."

Kakuzu chuckled. "Yes. This heart was my first new heart. It was from the very last air monk left standing in the Southern Air Temple. Sozin's Comet had only just passed, and all that were left were him and a fire style shinobi from the Uchiha clan."

Sasuke scowled at this.

"I had discovered this secret for immortality not long before after stumbling upon a strange library. I had already begun work on myself." He lifted his stitched on arm. "But a second heart was necessary as insurance… so I ripped it from the old man's chest while he was preoccupied. Then I took the Uchiha's heart."

"And not his eyes?" Sasuke asked almost to himself. It was rare to stumble across anyone who would prefer any body part of an Uchiha other than his eyes.

"His sharingan wasn't even activated," Kakuzu shrugged. "Just as well. It seems to me that the sharingan is far more a curse than a benefit." He laughed. "I'm sure you know all about that, little Sasuke."

Sasuke lashed out immediately, his curse mark flaring and changing his body to the second stage almost instantly. He blew a fireball from his lips while the air mask and fire mask attached to Kakuzu combined their elements to create a whirlwind of flame. The two attacks met, and Sasuke's flame was overpowered. The whirlwind bore down on Sasuke.

One quality of a shinobi that differentiates them from many other forms of fighters is their preparedness. Before a battle shinobi are known to go in and lay traps and tools for use later. Even when a fight is unlikely it is common for a ninja to do this. One favorite is the kawarimi jutsu, which exists in various forms among the villages. A special seal written in ink mixed with the owner's blood can be placed on any object, which, when activated via jutsu, will summon the object to the caster while simultaneously summoning the caster to the object's former location. It is in this way that a log that had been a moment ago lodged suspiciously in the cave ceiling was now found being burned to a crisp by a four hearted ninja's technique.

Sasuke, meanwhile, glided down from the ceiling. He could see the whole village from here, and saw the Avatar fighting a strange magma-encased monkey in the middle of what looked like a volcanic eruption. He decided to ignore this for now. He could also see where Kakuzu was just finishing his attack on what he would soon discover was a defenseless log. Sasuke was now unconcerned with this. He still had unfinished business. He shot down toward two figures manically attacking each other with all the grace of rabid dogs.

Juugo's claws ravaged Hidan's body as the latter laughed maniacally at the futility. He, having been relieved of his scythe shortly before due to the mad scuffle, delivered his own powerful punches to the de-aged boy. Hidan cried out, though, when he suddenly felt a cold pain run down his back. In anger, he gave Juugo a punch that launched him a fair distance before turning to see the gray skinned Uchiha.

"Back for more, eh?" Hidan said, giggling. "You must have a death wish. You know you can't kill me!" He took a dagger from its sheath and slashed at Sasuke. The boy dodged several times before catching a thrust toward his heart with his bare hand. Hidan pulled back and saw the blood that had come with it. He laughed louder and licked the blade. "Stupid!" he said as the mark of Jashin was formed on the ground and his body went black and white. "Now I'll finish you off, and this time your ally can't bring you back!"

"Let me help you!" Sasuke said, rushing forward and plunging his blade into the Akatsuki's heart.

"You really _are_ suicidal," Hidan marveled. "You would have been a great asset to Jashin." Then he paused, realizing that Sasuke didn't seem to be coughing up blood or rolling his eyes to the back of his head like most victims of his dark technique. In fact, Sasuke removed the blade from Hidan's heart and began to slash at him even more, putting gashes deep into his flesh.

Kakuzu, meanwhile, felt the full sting of the attacks. His fire heart burst the moment Sasuke's blade pierced Hidan's, and deep gashes were carved into him. Unknown to any but Sasuke, though Kakuzu was beginning to suspect, the snake that had bitten Kakuzu had not injected poison into his veins but rather drew blood out. Sasuke then milked the blood from the dead snake into a vial which he then used to coat Hidan's dagger. Another fact that would remain unknown was that he had also placed some of Jet's blood in a vial as well. Sasuke had left it up to fate to decide which would suffer Hidan's fate.

Azula took the opportunity to reform her lightning jutsu, which now came out more definitely blade shaped as she took the Akatsuki's advice. She rocketed toward the writhing ninja and slashed through the heart of water before twirling in midair and stabbing her grandfather's. She was about to do the same to the air monk mask when a burst of incredible wind threw her back.

Kakuzu glared in the direction of his partner, Hidan, seeing that the fool had unwittingly linked their bodies. Fortunately, it seemed that the pale shinobi had realized this, himself, and had stepped out of the circle. It was a fortunate thing, too, because a moment later his head was lopped off.

The green eyed Akatsuki put his hand to his own throat. "Damn him. I nearly died… I nearly am dead with only a single heart left." He dashed toward his partner, dodging the Tsuchikage. He could sense Long Feng giving pursuit.

Not far away, now, a rampaging magma gorilla exchanged blows with a much tinier bald child. Each blow landed seared the flesh. Aang was agile, but the beast seemed to have as much dexterity as he. The lava creature hurled him into a nearby building and roared, causing eruptions of liquid rock from beneath the ground.

Aang jumped to his feet and saw the monster charge. A stream of water hit it from the side. Aang saw that Katara had recovered and attacked. She still had some bright red patches around her body, but had healed the worst burns. Kisame hit the beast from the other side, panting from the effort. Aang breathed deeply as it continued to make its way toward him, and then when it was closer than comfortable, he pursed his lips and blew.

The gorilla found itself struggling against the sudden wind. It was a stream of wind that shattered windows and blew roofs off of buildings. The red, glowing ape began to turn black as it was cooled by the wind. Finally it let up after Aang had turned purple in the face, and the ape was still as a statue, Roushi trapped in an armor of rock.

Within the shinobi's mind, Roushi found himself buried in the hot chakra of his prisoner. He was only vaguely aware of what was happening with his body, and now he turned to the great ape trapped within him. "What's going on?" he asked. "We've… stopped?"

_The Avatar has trapped us._ The voice rumbled more coherently than before. _ Destroy the seal. Release all my power so that I may save us_!

"Wow… that was…" Aang panted. Suddenly the eyes of the ape began to glow. "No way…" The rocky armor began to crack as steam rose. Magma began to reliquify and the beast roared. Its thin red tails whipped in the air as lava once more began to converge on the jinchuriki. It began to grow bigger as the entire cavern trembled. The earth split wide open between Aang and the beast, more lava streaming within. It was then that Aang saw the fourth tail bubbling up.

"Avatar!" Kisame shouted. "You must stop it before that fourth tail forms! It will be even more powerful than before!"

Aang nodded and leaped over the chasm, striking blow after literal blow as he flew. The beast growled as it staggered back. It was still growing larger, however, having already doubled its size. It reached out for the Avatar and grabbed him out of midair. Aang screamed in pain as his skin blackened with the heat. The gorilla roared in triumph, causing another quake which cracked the ground beneath its feet. The ground shattered, then, and the ape with Aang in its grasp slid down toward the river of lava.

The gorilla laughed as it fell, its fourth tail almost fully formed. It would not be harmed by its own element, but the Avatar would. It happily dove into the stream, dragging Aang bellowing in pain down into its depths.

"Aang!" Katara cried, running toward the chasm. "No, oh no!"

"There's no way anyone could've survived that," Kisame said. He shook his head. "I never thought the Avatar would be taken down by…"

Suddenly the lava began to glow a bright blue, lighting up the cavern. A spout of this glowing blue lava sprang from the chasm and resolved into a large sphere of liquid magma. The glow faded soon after and the sphere cracked and fell apart. The rock-encased form of Roushi crashed to the ground, leaving Aang floating in the air, his body covered in the same hot magma shell that Roushi had. There was a red glow coming from between the cracks as well as from his eyes and where the tattoos on his skin would be.

"He's alive!" Katara said with relief, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"More than that," Kisame said with a toothy grin. "He's absorbed the yonbi from that old man, just like with the ichibi."

"It looks like he has more control this time, though," Katara said.

In fact, within Aang's mind the legion of past Avatars were struggling to keep the massive four tailed gorilla they suddenly found in their midst under control. They encircled the beast, bathing waist deep in lava, and they were now forcing their will upon it.

In the physical world, Aang turned and shot through the air, flames streaming from his limbs. He plowed through the rock ninja and found where the two Akatsuki were taking on Sasuke, Azula, and the Tsuchikage. He landed with an earth shaking thud.

"Where is Itachi?" he said with the voice of a thousand Avatars plus one very large gorilla. His glowing red eyes bore into Itachi, who now froze over the body of Hidan.

The Avatar looked down at Hidan's headless body and then back at Sasuke and his eyes narrowed. "You… killed him."

"No, no," Hidan's head said from Kakuzu's grasp. "I'm alright. But please, by all means, smack that little brat around a bit." He pouted. "He's completely ruined the ceremony. Jashin forgive me."

The Avatar seemed slightly confused, but the legion that made up the Avatar State's personality, plus one gorilla, decided anger was still the best policy. "Sasuke Uchiha!" he said. "For your crimes, you must be punished!"

Sasuke stared into the glowing holes that served as the Avatar's eyes. His sharingan, however, couldn't penetrate this stare. It seemed that healthy prudence would best serve him here. "You're mistaken, Avatar," he said calmly. "It was not I who captured my brother." He looked toward Long Feng, who had also stopped to stare at the fearsome sight. "It was the Tsuchikage. Head of the Dai Li, Long Feng."

"Long Feng." The Avatar turned his head toward the leader of the rock village.

"N-no!" Long Feng said. "I… I merely… asked him here. For questioning. Standard procedure, really, and we didn't touch a hair on his head." He put up his hands in an appeasing gesture. "In fact, he's already left. You'll probably find him on the shore of Lake Laogai. Up above."

"Lies!" Jet interjected, hobbling toward the group. "He definitely kidnapped him. I saw it with my own eyes!"

"Foolish boy!" Long Feng said angrily. "He's from the Fire Nation, you know. We are the protectors of the Earth Kingdom!"

Jet scoffed. "A few months ago… heck, last week I might have believed you. But now I realize that just because you're from the Earth Kingdom doesn't make you a friend, and even if that guy's from the Fire Nation, if he's allies with the Avatar, he's my ally as well."

The Avatar walked toward the Tsuchikage, his footsteps melting the rock as he went.

"You don't want me as an enemy, boy," Long Feng growled.

As the Avatar approached the Tsuchikage, Sasuke and his allies quietly retreated into the shadows. Sweat beaded on Long Feng's brow.

"Where is Itachi?" the Avatar said again.

"I already told you!" Long Feng said. "If you must know, he's escaped. Just as I said, he's probably on the shore of Lake Laogai, and if I'm lucky he's drowned!"

The Avatar stopped and seemed to consider this. Then he looked up and blasted toward the ceiling. He hit the rock and began to burrow up toward the surface.

Long Feng smiled wearily. "Good… now I can deal with…" he looked around. The two Akatsuki were still there, but Sasuke and his allies had disappeared. The Rock ninja that were in the vicinity were unconscious.

Hidan twisted his head on his newly sewn up neck. "Ah, it's good to have you around, Kakuzu," he said.

"You're lucky I bothered after you turned your accursed technique upon me," Kakuzu said.

"My bad," Hidan shrugged. Then he turned toward the Tsuchikage. "Jashin will be getting restless, though. All this fighting and I haven't managed to kill anyone, yet."

"Oh, you're a big talker," Long Feng said slyly. "But look at you two. Slashed to pieces and sewn back together again. You don't have any chance against me. I'm barely winded."

"Is that so?" Kakuzu bellowed, a small twister blowing up dust around him. He and the Earth Shadow locked eyes, both dangerously low on energy but neither willing to let the other see an ounce of weakness. Sometimes bluffing was the best way to win a fight.

Irony would have it that Long Feng was the better bluffer. Kakuzu was seconds away from deciding to flee, not wanting to risk death over this trifle. However, Long Feng suddenly found himself with a blade lodged unexpectedly in his skull. He dropped like a sack of cabbages.

"I can't say I much like you guys," Jet said as he stood over the Earth Shadow's body. "But something about this guy _really_ made me hate him."

- - -

Itachi sat slumped on the shore of Lake Laogai. Though his eyes were opened, he found himself able to see nothing but the bright light of day. He didn't know how long it would last this time. He had really overdone his mangekyo.

In front of Itachi lay an unconscious young girl whose eyes were more permanently unseeing than his. Her blouse had been ripped off and a circular seal encircled the cursed seal. Itachi had used a lot of his remaining power to reverse the transformation, which was another reason he had yet to move in the many minutes since he had performed the technique. He had been rather relieved that he had learned to do it with his eyes closed, as well, as that was exactly the situation under which he had done it.

He heard the Avatar's approach and felt the heat radiating from him. Even without sight, he could sense the identity of the one watching him. "Avatar," he said. "Have you let yourself be controlled so easily?"

"I control the beast," the legion voice of the Avatar State said.

"No," Itachi said. "The Avatar State controls the beast. Weren't you to come back only after you learned to control it? Without that control the world is doomed, isn't it?"

The Avatar remained silent. Then Aang convulsed as the lava began to recede. The glow faded and the magma formed a symbol in ash on his stomach. Aang panted for a moment before saying. "I had to come back… for Katara. And you. Everyone would have been in danger." He noticed Toph's motionless body on the ground.

"Your earthbending teacher," Itachi acknowledged. "I've delivered her to you. Though she may not be ready to teach quite yet." He fixed his sightless eyes on Aang. "Everyone is in greater danger than before because you put your personal feelings above your duty to the greater good. You must let go of your attachments to achieve the power you need."

Aang looked uncertain. "You mean… like you let go of your family? Of Sasuke? Is that why he hates you so much?"

- - -

The Earth King regarded his advisor as he stood in his throne room. "The Avatar?"

"Yes, my liege," Long Feng said with fluid grace. "The Avatar seems to have joined a terrorist organization bent on wresting control of Ba Sing Se from its rightful ruler. He attempted first to neutralize the Dai Li and myself." He shook his head. "We were barely able to fight him and his thugs off."

The Earth King looked pensive. "I see. I never would have believed that the Avatar could ever do such a thing. Why, it was the Avatar who founded the Dai Li, the noble protectors of the throne."

"It was a… surprise," Long Feng said. "But I saw it with my own eyes. Even the Avatar is still human when it comes down to it, and that kind of power in one person… it can present many temptations."

"Yes," the Earth King said. "Then let it be known that the Avatar is now an enemy of the State."

- - -

Long Feng strode down the halls of the Tsuchikage. He entered his office and there faced a small, wizened figure. "Well, Third, everything seems to have gone according to plan."

The Third Tsuchikage laughed. "That young fool, Long Feng. Thought he could cast _me_ aside. It was lucky that the Akatsuki attacked."

The man in the Tsuchikage uniform pulled on his face, ripping it from the pale face underneath. Orochimaru licked his lips. "Everything went precisely according to plan, Lord Tsuchikage. Luck had nothing to do with it."

"Hmph," the Third said. "If you say so."

"In the meantime," Orochimaru said. "No one even knows that the Fourth has been killed." He plopped down in the big Tsuchikage's chair. "No one will be suspicious in the least if Long Feng were to simply… abdicate his position." He spun around in the chair till its back was to the Third. "On the other hand… the position of Tsuchikage would give a man quite a bit of… leverage."

The Third hadn't survived as long as he had for being trusting. He had dealt with Akatsuki members before, and missing-nin were notorious for being even less reliable than a ninja who had to answer to their village. He had been prepared for a betrayal long before he had approached the Sound leader. Before Orochimaru had finished his innuendo, the Third had already sprung his trap. Chains burst from the chair, ensnaring the snake ninja, and the Third tossed a blade through it, impaling the figure on the other side.

At that moment, Azula burst through the door, accompanied by several Dai Li agents. "It appears reports were true," she said. "Gentlemen, it seems the Third has just murdered the Fourth."

"Wait!" the Third said before the Dai Li agents could react. "That is not the Fourth. It's an imposter!" He leaped up onto the desk and turned the chair around, and there Orochimaru's face was twisted in surprised agony. "You see? Orochimaru, the missing-nin. He killed the Fourth and took his place."

"I see," Azula said with an uncertain tone.

One of the Dai Li agents, man with long, dark hair and a large patch over his left eye glared suspiciously at the figure. Behind his eye-patch, a pale eye bulged with a sudden influx of blood. That eye saw through the black material in front of it and even through the flesh of the figures in front of him. "Wait," he said. "That's not Orochimaru."

He stalked forward and put his hands behind the corpse's ears. "It's a skilled forgery, and might have been completely missed by a normal surgeon performing the autopsy, but my byakugan saw through it." He pealed the face back, and saw underneath it a mangled face, missing bits of nose, ears, and even his beard, but it was recognizable to all present as the face of Long Feng.

"Well done, mister," Azula complimented the Dai Li agent. "I might have believed this traitor had you not been here."

"Traitor?" the Third spat. "You aren't even from this village! You're one of Orochimaru's servants!"

"How dare you…" Azula said, very genuine disgust radiating from her.

"Third, you know as well as I that the captain was trained under Long Feng himself. We in the Dai Li Black Ops have known her since she was a gennin." The scarred Dai Li agent said as he cringed away from the young woman's smoldering fury. "She's the best and most loyal operative we have."

"He's just trying to distract us," Azula said. "Take him away, quickly."

The Third struggled for a moment, but then thought better of it. He had been had. The Dai Li were masters at creating or destroying memories, and somehow no more than a day after Long Feng's death, Orochimaru had apparently mastered the art himself. As he was led away, he saw a boy garbed in a Dai Li uniform. His eyes flashed red and for a moment the Third found himself on a dark world under a red sky with an orb floating overhead, three black tomoe encircling a central point.

_Aha_, the Third thought. _Such advanced genjutsu. Maybe that's it_.

"It was reckless of you," Sasuke said later after the Dai Li had emptied building.

"Perhaps," Orochimaru said slyly at Sasuke's side. He was wearing his own Dai Li uniform. "But it was worth it. Now the entire Rock village will be at our command. Even the Earth King bends his ear to us."

"All at the behest of Azula," Sasuke said.

"It's true that the hypnosis we performed on key members of the Dai Li with the help of those… wondrous eyes of yours… only included Azula and her people," Orochimaru admitted. "Furthermore, we have put Azula personally in a position to inherit the mantle of Tsuchikage. However, if she were to betray us, the Dai Li will turn on her with two words from my lips."

Sasuke didn't bat an eye. He had been responsible for programming the Dai Li agents with those commands. "And, of course, she will betray us."

"Well," Orochimaru laughed. "In the end, someone will be betrayed." His laughing eroded into a bubbling cough, which he covered with his hand.

Sasuke noticed the blood on the snake ninja's hand, which Orochimaru put away quickly. "That sounds like a nasty cough," he said before turning. "You should take some medicine. It would be a shame if you were to get sick."

- - -

"You do know how to make an entrance, Danzo," Ozai said from his burning throne.

"My apologies, Fire Lord," Danzo said, bowing. The two Anbu that flanked him did the same amidst the unconscious bodies of the royal guard.

"You've come to make your report?"

The bandaged old man nodded. "I have an agent ready to neutralize Orochimaru and our missing-nin, Sasuke Uchiha."

"It's a shame about the Uchiha boy," Ozai said. "I remember his performance at the chuunin exams. Quite impressive the show he made fighting the future Kazekage. Out of all the shinobi clans, the Uchiha have served my family most loyally." He smiled wistfully for a moment before his face turned stone serious. "You will bring the Avatar and my son to me."

"And then you will ensure my succession to Hokage," Danzo confirmed. "And the village hidden in leaves will once more become the sword of the Fire Nation, destroying all our enemies." He grimaced, a smile being far too difficult on a face so used to frowning disapprovingly. "I'm surprised that you would not trust one group of shinobi to complete your task, and yet you will trust me."

"I know you, Danzo," Ozai said. "You are a true patriot, and you would do anything to protect your country and your village. I also know Orochimaru. He is much like a guard weasel-mander. Very deadly to your enemies, but as they have no loyalty it is prudent to stop them somehow before they have a chance to burn their masters."


	18. Attachments

**Elements of War**

**Chapter 17  
Attachments**

Aang and his friends sailed away on Appa as Ba Sing Se's earthbender soldiers tossed boulders at them. They were rather impeding on the group's escape. The Dai Li had moved quickly after they had escaped the hidden rock village buried underneath Ba Sing Se, rallying their own troops as well as the city's guards to chase them out.

Kisame bailed from the flying bison as they passed over a small pond. "Keep going," he growled back at them. "I'm going to hold them off." In spite of his fatigue from the day's fighting, he tore through the pursuing soldiers like a shark through water.

"We can't just leave him!" Katara said as she cut an incoming boulder in two.

"Don't worry about Kisame," Itachi said hoarsely as he lay limply in the saddle. "He will be fine."

His eyes smoldering a faint red, crescent kicked a smaller stone out of the air, shattering it into bits before strongly punching at another. Flames rocketed from his fist and exploded on the rock. "He's right," Aang said. "We aren't going to shake them without a distraction."

"Besides," Sokka said. "He's Itachi's partner. If anyone knows how to escape impending doom, it would be him."

The distraction was indeed effective, for the projectiles became much scarcer and Appa climbed free of Ba Sing Se airspace. Katara still looked uneasy. "Fine, but did we have to bring… _her_?" She looked suspiciously at the young girl in bandages.

Aang settled down at Appa's reigns. "I told you, Katara. She's supposed to be my earthbending teacher. I can _feel_ it."

"Did it feel like a big rock hitting your head?" Sokka asked. "Because I think I have an explanation."

"Listen," Aang said. "I saw her in the swamp around Hidden Rain. That means she's somehow important to me."

"If someone were trying to kill me, I'd think they were important, too," Sokka said.

"And King Bumi told me to find someone who listens and waits," Aang said. "And I _feel_ it. She's supposed to teach me. She even taught me while we were fighting."

"If you want to call beating the gravel out of you teaching," Sokka said.

"Look," Katara said calmly. "Let's just go back to the Eastern Air Temple and regroup."

"But we need to get back in there fast," Sokka said. "You saw those Fire Nation people in there with the Dai Li. All of Ba Sing Se could be… doomed!"

"We can't do anything about it right now," Aang conceded. "The whole city is against us, now. If I had just waited to complete my training with Guru Pathik…"

"Then we would have been captured or worse, and Itachi probably would have died on the shore of that lake," Katara said. She sidled up closer to the monk and put her arm around him. "Don't beat yourself up about it, Aang. You had to do what you thought was right. That's all anyone can do. And if it makes you feel any better, I'm glad you did."

Sokka rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well… I just wonder where Jet and those other Daybreak guys disappeared to…"

- - -

Kakuzu let the gold coins in his pocket jingle merrily. It always did his hearts good to hear that sound.

"You should've let me kill the kid," Hidan grumbled. "But, no, you just had to collect your bounty. Greedy bastard."

Kakuzu shrugged. "As the treasurer of Akatsuki, it is my duty to collect funds for our organization. The price on the boy's head was significant. It would have been a waste not to capitalize." He turned his head and his green eyes locked onto Hidan. "Besides, I let you kill those Fire Nation troops, didn't I?"

"Right…"

"Can't make a habit of that, of course. Killing the men you're collecting the bounty from isn't good for business. Thankfully, they weren't regular customers."

"I suppose that's true," Hidan sighed. "Of course, you still made out with that captain's heart in addition to the Fourth's."

Kakuzu laughed mirthlessly and patted his chest. "It was time I had them replaced, anyway."

- - -

Mai huffed. "Thanks for not forgetting about me or anything."

Although she spoke with all the cool calm of a proper noblewoman, Juugo found himself backing away. Really, he thought, it wasn't so much cool as icy. "Sorry, Miss Mai," he said. "With all the chaos… well, it took awhile before we realized you were missing."

"No, that's alright, really," Mai said with a tone that clearly denoted it was not, in fact, alright at all. "It was liberating running around in my underwear."

"I know!" Ty Lee beamed, completely oblivious to the sarcasm. "It's so much easier to stretch and practice acrobatics, too."

Suigetsu, who had been lying around ignoring everyone up until this point stood up and said enthusiastically, "Say, there's an idea! Stretching always cheers people up. Let's go!" He reached down and touched his toes, neglecting to bend at the waste.

Mai rolled her eyes. "Men. Even when they're made of water they're all the same."

"It's true," Karin said with a hint of bitterness. "You'd never catch me pining over one."

"What about Sasuke?" Suigetsu asked with a toothy grin. He could almost see the steam rising off of her.

"Yeah, what a surprise," Mai commented aside. "The dark, angsty pretty boy gets all the otherwise intelligent, capable women drooling over themselves like dogs in heat. Ugh, people like that really annoy me."

"I don't know what you mean," she said.

"Too bad Toph's not here," Suigetsu shrugged. "She'd see through that lie in a second."

The five were silent for a moment in the sparsely decorated room. They hadn't been able to find the blind earthbender since the attack on Hidden Rock. Orochimaru had told them she had gone to Lake Laogai to help guard Itachi, since she would not be fooled by any of his genjutsu. The possibility that she had been killed in his escape loomed on them, but none were quite willing to accept it. She had managed to grow on them like a creeping crystal.

"We'll have to get her to ask Karin about it when she gets back!" Ty Lee said cheerily, nudging the red haired kunoichi.

All turned as Sasuke entered the room with Azula trailing along behind. She seemed very fatigued, and they guessed accurately that they must have been training. In fact, since the attack on Rock, Sasuke had been using his sharingan both to drill her quickly on jutsu and explore the depths of her mind for evidence of the two tails. The former had so far been going well, but all he had been able to find out during the latter was that the seal was so tight that there was only indication of the faintest amount of chakra leakage. It seemed obvious to Sasuke that whomever had sealed the beast didn't even want its host to be able to use its power.

"Karin," Sasuke said, fixing his cold gaze on her.

The red head's glasses fogged up from the sudden rush of heat to her face. "Y-y-yes, Sasuke!"

Azula narrowed her eyes slightly at the woman's display and without thinking moved closer to Sasuke, suddenly feeling very possessive. Sasuke continued. "You will lead Ty Lee and Suigetsu on a mission."

"What mission is that?" she asked.

"Find Toph," Sasuke said. "I believe she's been taken by the Avatar."

"Wait," Azula said, turning imperiously toward Sasuke. "Why do we need to find that brat? She was a useful counter to your older brother's sharingan, I'll give you that, but otherwise she's an insubordinate wild card that does nothing but drain our resources. Besides, Ty Lee is _mine_."

Sasuke had the decency to look nonplussed. "She's as capable a fighter, if not more so, than anyone here, and she's never been insubordinate toward me. Besides, Ty Lee is her own person. She can follow whomever she wishes. Isn't that right?" He focused his glare on the gymnast.

Ty Lee shrank under the gazes of both Azula and Sasuke. She'd thought it was bad enough hanging around the princess, alone, but Sasuke was nearly her equal when it came to getting his own way. She had occasionally entertained the idea of the two as a romantic match, and they certainly seemed to have many of the same interests, but then she realized that in such a relationship with personalities of their sort either they would end up killing each other or everyone else. Possibly both. In defense from these two domineering characters, she fainted.

"Anyway," Sasuke said as he apprehensively averted his gaze from the prone girl. "My people outnumber yours."

"As a princess, I don't rule by consensus," Azula said. "_I_ say that since your brother is dead, that little blind girl's usefulness is at an end."

Sasuke smirked, easily equaling her own levels of arrogance and self assuredness. "My brother… is _not_ dead. The very fact that Orochimaru has explicitly ordered me not to look for him or Toph gives me enough reason to believe this. In any case, you should know better than anyone that without a body, always assume your enemy is still alive. Since Orochimaru and Kabuto will be leaving on other business, soon, now is the perfect time to act."

Azula stared Sasuke down defiantly for a few moments, but then smiled menacingly. "You're right, of course. Go on and find your pet earthbender. Perhaps they can capture the Avatar as well."

_It's a shame I'll have to kill him soon_, she thought as she walked out of the room.

- - -

Near the shores of the Earth Kingdom, light fell on a night of friendship. Supposedly. Sakura stretched in the morning light with a satisfied yawn. In spite of the boys' antics at the resort last night, she had managed to have a decent night's sleep. She was surprised to notice Sai sitting some distance away outside her window facing a shallow, burbling stream and the thick forest. Curious, she quickly garbed herself in her standard outfit and ran out to see him.

"What's this?" she asked as she approached, seeing him scribbling something onto a pad of paper. "So you're an artist?"

Sai turned without registering a single hint of surprise on his face. After a moment's pause he asked, "Do you need something?" He regarded her impassively as she looked over the colorful swirls with which he had graced the paper.

"You may have a dirty mouth," she said with a smile. "But you have a delicate side, huh? I'm surprised."

Sai returned the expression, as sincere as a statue's smile on his face. "That fake smile," he said. "Did you come here to hit me again? Just like yesterday?"

Sakura grinned mischievously. "Actually, yes." She laughed. "Kidding! I just wanted to see your picture. I was curious what you were drawing."

"I see…"

"Since you were sitting in a place like this, I thought I'd find you drawing the scenery, but it's an abstract I see. That picture… what's its title?"

Sai grinned. "Who knows?"

Sakura looked pensive. "You haven't decided yet?"

"It just doesn't have one," Sai said. "I've drawn tens of thousands of pictures in my life, but I've never given even one of them a title."

"Hmm," said Sakura. "Still, you're usually supposed to give a picture a title, right? Like if it's a portrait, then that person's name… or even with other pictures, the title might be the circumstances at the time or maybe your state of mind or your emotions."

Sai went back to rubbing a dark brown pastel on his paper for a while as his mirthless smile remained plastered on his face. Then he stopped and said, "To be more accurate, it's not that I don't give them titles, it's that I can't." This caused Sakura pause. "Not one thing comes to me. I don't… feel anything at all." They remained in silence for a long moment as the kunoichi absorbed the implications.

"Well, that sure explains why everything you say is so insensible," came a belligerent voice behind them. Sakura turned to see Naruto and the masked Zuko there, an annoyed look on the former's face, and the latter's body language seemed to mimic the feeling. "We're about ready to head out," he continued. "Captain Yamato told me to come get you."

"Okay," Sakura said, stretching out the kinks she had developed while crouching to see Sai's drawing.

Naruto approached and looked contemptuously at Sai's drawing. "Hey!" he said. "That picture's nothing special."

"Indeed," Sai responded with a smile. "Just like your penis."

Zuko snorted beneath his blue lion-turtle mask as he tried to contain his laughter. Naruto was taken aback for a moment but then pointed aggressively at the other shinobi and yelled, "I'm going to be completely straight-forward and honest! I absolutely hate you! If you have a problem with me then quit it with the fake smile and start being straight-forward and honest yourself. If you wanna fight, I'll take you on anytime!"

Sai closed his eyes in an expression that could almost be called amusement. "You don't understand. I just don't think anything of you one way or the other."

Zuko shifted uncomfortably in the tense silence that followed. "Just like…" he started.

"What's that?" Sakura asked, having heard him mumble.

"This guy," Zuko said. "I just figured out what I don't like about him. He reminds me too much of my little sister."

Naruto laughed. "Yeah, now that you mention it. They both have the same fake smile, don't they?"

"Please go ahead," Sai said abruptly. "I'll follow as soon as I've cleaned things up here."

"I'll help," Zuko said, stepping past Sakura and reaching down to pick up a book. The kunoichi cocked her head to the side, wondering what had possessed the masked boy to insist on helping someone he had just admitted not liking. Zuko looked curiously at the book he now held. "This is hand drawn, isn't it? Yours?"

"Yes," Sai said, taking the book from the other quickly.

"A picture book?" Sakura said excitedly. "Hey, you wouldn't mind showing it to me along the way sometime?"

"Actually I would," Sai said bluntly. "The book isn't finished yet. Also, I make it a point not to let other people touch this." He looked down on the book with its simple drawing of the light haired boy on the cover. His face looked almost melancholy. "Because it's my older brother's."

- - -

Itachi found himself awakened by a strong blow to his torso. He tried to open his eyes and see what was the matter, but there was some kind of bandage wrapped tightly around his head and over his eyes. He heard the familiar voices of Aang and his friends shouting. "You'll have to excuse me," he said quietly. "But my vision seems to be impeded."

"Poor baby," a female voice said.

"Would you mind telling me what's going on?" Itachi continued. He felt the rock that was pinning him to some hard place crumble, and then a pair of hands was fumbling with his bandages. He blinked as his vision began to clear in the daylight. He still couldn't see as well as normal with objects in the back- and foregrounds slightly out of focus, but he could see well enough to recognize the angry face of the girl whose body Orochimaru had been possessing.

"You shouldn't let someone like that walk around free!" Toph said. "He's a criminal."

Sokka, who had been the one to unwrap Itachi's blindfold, shot back, "I think you've got your facts turned around, kid. Your duck butt buddy is the Fire Nation stooge."

Toph snorted. "He's as much Fire Nation as that guy is. And he's not the one who killed his whole family!"

"Killed his family? That's ridiculous," Aang said. "If that's what Sasuke told you, consider the source." Before anyone could say anything else, Aang opened his glider and flew off.

"Aang, wait!" Katara said, chasing after him as Sokka followed.

Toph glowered. "Sasuke wasn't lying," she said. "I could tell if he was."

"Really?" Itachi said softly. "And what if he wasn't? Can a person not lie but still be wrong?"

Toph was silent for a moment. "Well… did you kill your whole family?"

- - -

Itachi stood beside Shisui on the rickety old bridge. The thirteen year old boy was like a little brother to Shisui, so when he had asked him to come out with him before the family meeting with that troubled look in his eyes, Shisui had been unable to say no. "We'll be late," he said to the boy. "What is it you really wanted to talk about?"

Itachi sighed, a rare show of emotion. "They say that we, as shinobi, are tools. But whose tools are we, ultimately?"

Shisui considered this. "I think I know what's troubling you, little Itachi. This operation… it has all of us a little anxious. But we have nothing to fear. The Senju are no more, and their confederacy of clans has grown ripe and fat for slaughter."

Itachi crossed his arms and gazed pensively into the water. "No… there's still… one left."

Shisui's face became stony and serious. "What do you mean?"

"The infant," Itachi said. "He didn't die during the Kyuubi's assault."

Shisui sighed. "Your father will be most upset. And your mother will be disappointed. Who is it, then?"

Itachi turned away.

"There were several orphaned infants recovered at that time… it wasn't…" Shisui grinned. "That's it. It was the fox kid wasn't it? Perhaps it's best you didn't kill him, then. It would be ironic to control the last heir of the Senju clan." He patted Itachi on the shoulder. "Don't worry about, kid."

Itachi pounded his fist on the bridge's rail. "You don't understand!"

"What?"

Itachi's eyes shimmered. "It's not just that. Father had me join the Anbu in order to be the Uchiha's eyes and ears into the outside… but this whole time I've been their eyes and ears here!"

Shisui backed away. "You… you've betrayed us?"

"No!" Itachi said. "They knew what Father had planned before they recruited me. I've been trying to save all of us from total war. They're poised to bring the might of the entire village down on us. Even if we win, without the element of surprise you know that the casualties will be high. I won't let you or my little brother be a part of those casualties!"

Shisui narrowed his eyes. "I see. So this whole time we've been the Third's puppets. It figures… he was trained by the First." He smiled. "Listen, don't worry about this, Itachi. We'll just move up our attack date. We won't have the Fire Lord's weapons to help us, but the Uchiha will be victorious. And no one has to know your involvement."

"We should just call this attack off," Itachi said. "I have friends in Anbu. If they know we've abandoned the plan they won't attack."

Shisui shook his head sympathetically. "You read the scrolls. You know the curse of the Uchiha bloodline. It won't end until all of either the Uchiha or Senju is destroyed. Ever since the first Uchiha slew his older brother—the first Senju—it has been this way."

Itachi shivered with repressed anger. It shouldn't have to be like this.

"As long as even one Uchiha lives we will rise up to destroy the Senju and their works," Shisui said.

"So the Uchiha and Senju can never coexist peacefully?" Itachi said with a rasp. "Is that what you're saying?"

Shisui nodded. "The Senju invite war upon us through treaties and appeasement. We have to overthrow their system for our very survival."

"Ever since I learned the history of our clan," Itachi said quietly. "I have felt shame." He looked up at Shisui, a decision solidifying in his mind. "The only people in our clan I care for are you and Sasuke. I would sacrifice even my family to destroy this philosophy of hate and death. Join me, Shisui."

"Even the two of us working with Konoha wouldn't have the power necessary to stop our family alone," Shisui said. "Besides, I can't ever agree with the Senju's meek philosophy." He sighed. "But I suppose there would be one way that a single Uchiha might destroy the rest. You remember the secret of the scrolls…"

Itachi gasped. "Impossible. The last man with that power is dead. And even he could not have destroyed the clan alone."

"He didn't have surprise on his side, Itachi," Shisui said. "Besides, I don't plan on using that power on the clan. I plan on using it on the village."

"But…" Itachi said, confused for a moment. "You don't have…"

"Not yet," Shisui said. "But… my bond with you is stronger than any other, little Itachi. And you hold me in the same regard, yes?" He smiled and drew his sword. "Then whoever of us wins will decide the fate of the Uchiha. Either we will be rulers of the shinobi world or we will fade from history."

Even as he said this he seemed to fade in front of Itachi. He knew what was coming next, but was unable to avoid it. He felt the pommel of Shisui's sword hit him in the back of the head and he stumbled forward.

Itachi regained his footing and turned back on the other Uchiha, his sharingan active. "That was just a warning," his brother said. "Next time your head comes off." He faded again, and this time Itachi could see just where to counter. Their blades made contact an instant later.

- - -

Minutes later Shisui was drowned in the very river the two had met at so many times before. It had been too easy. Shisui had let him win, unable to sever his bonds as Itachi had. Madara, Itachi believed, had been right about that at least.

"I remember that night well," Itachi said. "Nearly one hundred of my kinsmen died that night. However, I did not kill my whole family."

Toph seemed unsure, but then sighed. "I… can't feel you lying, either."

Itachi closed his eyes for a moment in repose, and then turned to Toph. "In case you were wondering, the cursed seal my foolish little brother bestowed upon you has been repressed by my own seal. I was unable to exorcise Orochimaru's chakra from you, but it cannot overtake you without the Earth Seal being active."

Toph put her hand to her chest. "Is that right?" She shuddered at the memory of that creep's chakra burning under her skin like writhing snakes. "Well… thanks, I guess."

"The seal will remain repressed as long as you stay healthy. If you run dangerously low on energy, though, you may find you will have to consciously contain Orochimaru's will," Itachi warned. "Otherwise, even if you will it the curse mark will not activate."

"I see," Toph said with a pout. "So you're making sure I can't use it against you, too."

"Pragmatism is a virtue for ninja," Itachi responded. "Now, in repayment for saving you, all I ask is that you fulfill your destiny… and train the Avatar as an earthbender. I'm afraid I've done all I can."

Toph turned her head toward Aang. "Twinkletoes? Yeah, I guess he's teachable. It might be fun. I… guess I should tell him… that Sasuke might have been wrong about you."

"Good," Itachi said, sitting back down. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm still rather worn. I'm going to rest here for awhile."

- - -

"Our objective is purely capture," Yamato was saying to his team. "Under no circumstances must the target be killed, even if it results in battle. If they are killed, we will have lost a valuable information source. The mission is more difficult than simply defeating the enemy. Given that it's a target mission, I'll be the first to go in and you will all act as backup. The strategy is simple: first, I will restrain the target. Second, if I fail to restrain them and a battle situation arises, you will all prepare to fight. I'll signal you in that case. If we reach a situation as in part two, then we must fight via the buddy system. When one person moves, the other will look after them. The principle of the system is mutual support. Now, I'll decide on the buddies." Yamato looked around at his three gathered ninja. "First, Naruto and Sai. Second, Sakura and myself."

"But," Sakura began.

"Sakura, you are our only medical ninja," Yamato explained. "So that you are not injured yourself, I will be there with you."

Naruto grumbled a bit about his own teammate. He would much rather have been teamed up with Sakura. However, he then noticed Zuko and Iroh in the corner and pointed a thumb at them. "What about those two? Are they helping us out or what?"

Iroh smiled jovially at the blond. "I'm afraid our mission will require us to leave you for a short time. But… I can tell you that our objectives are very much the same."

"I know this isn't exactly normal," Yamato said, "But tomorrow, while Iroh and Ogura perform reconnaissance, we'll spend a day on simulation for team playing. I know nothing about all of you other than what's in your files. I'd like to know things like your fighting methods, battle skills, and array of jutsu. Through getting to know each other, we can tighten up your teamwork. You might think I'm being a bit too serious, but that's how I do things so put your all into this."

And so it was that the next morning, as the three shinobi working under Yamato discovered just how difficult working with the compassionless Sai could be, Iroh and his disguised nephew infiltrated a nearby town dressed as Earth Kingdom commoners, where they met an old man in a tavern who played on his own at a Pai Sho table.

"Uncle," Zuko whispered. "Don't tell me our important secret mission is beating an old guy at a board game."

"There's always time for a game of Pai Sho," his uncle replied. He sat down across from the wizened elder. "May I have this game?"

The other cleared the table and gestured to Iroh. "The guest has the first move." Iroh placed the lotus tile in the center of the board. "The white lotus gambit, is it? Few still cling to the old ways."

"Those who do can always find a friend," Iroh replied.

"Then let us play," said the old man, placing another tile on the board. Iroh responded in kind and so it went in rapid succession as if every placement had been rehearsed beforehand. Finally they stopped, and the pattern made by the tiles on the board resembled a lotus flower. "Welcome brother," the old man said. "The White Lotus wide to those who know her secrets."

"What are you old gasbags talking about," Zuko said uncouthly.

Iroh shrugged. "I always tried to tell you that Pai Sho is more than just a game."

The two followed the old Pai Sho player to a nearby antique shop and they went into the back. "So your club meets in a shop for old junk," Zuko commented flatly. "How fitting."

"You must forgive my nephew. He is not an initiate and has little appreciation for the cryptic arts," Iroh told their host.

"Not at all," the Pai Sho player said. "It's an honor to meet a Grand Master of the Order of the White Lotus. You must know so many secrets." He knocked on a door in the back room of the shop. A small window slid open.

"Who knocks at the guarded gate?" the person behind the door asked.

"One who has eaten the fruit and tasted its mysteries," Iroh responded automatically. The door opened and he and the Pai Sho player entered. Zuko attempted to follow, but the door was slammed in his face. Iroh opened the window and said, "I'm afraid it's members only. Wait out here."

Leaving his disgruntled nephew outside, he turned to face the two White Lotus members in the room. Sand was piled on the floor where the Pai Sho player had stood. "It really is an honor meeting Grand Master Iroh."

Iroh bowed. "It is just as much an honor to meet the Godaime Kazekage." He turned to the other man in the room, his face half masked. "And Baki! It has been a long time."

The middle aged jounin nodded. "I would have come alone, but I'm afraid Gaara was insistent…"

"My recent encounter with Akatsuki has not made me any less capable of taking care of myself," Gaara said. "The Avatar may have taken the beast out of me, but I still possess my skills."

"That is fortunate," Iroh said. "And I'm glad to see he was able to prevent your death."

"He is, however," Baki said. "Under the continued influence of Akatsuki."

"Of Itachi," Iroh said. "One of us."

"I'm not so sure," Baki said. "He has his own ideas about how things ought to be done. I'm not sure how you can trust him, especially after what happened to your son…"

Iroh nodded absently.

- - -

Itachi climbed the large mountain, a large flame burning in his hand.

"You shouldn't let the flame burn so large. You'll lose control," Iroh said beside him.

"It's not a problem for me," Itachi said calmly. He regarded the flame in his hand. "I… don't believe I can do this."

"Do you need to rest?" Iroh asked.

"No," Itachi said. "They said I was… to be judged. By my actions. By my ancestors' actions. But my bloodline is cursed."

"My grandfather wiped out an entire nation of people," Iroh said. "My father continues a war to destroy two others. I, myself, laid siege to Ba Sing Se and am responsible for hundreds of deaths during the war." He shook his head. "It's impossible to judge one's character solely by their past actions or their ancestors' actions. What will truly matter is what's in your heart."

"I fear my heart is as black as Agni's fire," Itachi said.

"You are a good boy, Itachi," Iroh said. "You've only done what you have thought was right. The same as me."

"You wouldn't say that," Itachi said. "If you knew…"

"Knew?" Iroh asked. "What?"

"I've seen you before, General," Itachi said. "I was there during the siege. The day your son died."

"You were…" Iroh said. "I don't remember… but your village signed a treaty six years ago promising you would stay out of the war."

"I wasn't there to fight in the war," Itachi said. "It was an assassination mission. A personal matter that someone hired Konoha's black ops to take care of."

Iroh felt a ball of ice form in his gut. "Itachi… who was meant to be assassinated."

"Prince Lu Ten of the Fire Nation," Itachi said quietly. "I was told to make it look like just another casualty of war."

Iroh stopped, his flame sputtering. "Itachi… who…?"

"I don't know, General," Itachi said. "My orders were given to me by Danzo, the head of Root. The identity of the client was classified. Only he would know for certain."

Iroh shivered with rage. His son's death was still fresh in his mind. He had been wandering the land ever since, still yet to make it back to his home. A year ago, he might have attacked Itachi at this revelation. But he knew attacking Itachi would be just as futile as attacking the rock which had crushed the life out of his son. Until now Itachi had been nothing but a tool for killing. Iroh would save his grief until he found out who had been wielding him.

"Itachi," Iroh said finally, his flame growing brighter once more.

The young boy looked at the older man cautiously. "General, I am responsible for your grief. Please forgive me."

"It's already done," Iroh said. "The most important thing is being able to stand and face your demons, Itachi, instead of trying to justify them or run from them as I have done in my past. I think as long as you can do that, you'll do fine." He began to walk on. "Now, let's get up this mountain, shall we?"

- - -

Itachi watched as Aang passed through the boulder Toph had tossed at him, dissolving into sand.

"I said block it, Twinkletoes!" Toph shouted. "Not disintegrate it! That's waterbender thinking right there!"

"Is there something wrong with that?" Katara asked, slightly offended.

Itachi allowed himself a small smile. Aang seemed to have picked up some of the earthbending instincts of the one and four tails while he had possessed them. Toph hadn't seemed too happy to find that she had to make her new pupil unlearn some earthbending as well as teach.

Eventually, Toph consented to give Aang a break, and the airbender wandered over to Itachi. He sat down beside the ninja. "I thought about what you said," he said. "Guru Pathik said that to open the last chakra and control the Avatar State, I had to let go of the things that attached me to this world."

Itachi glanced at the group's waterbender, who was sitting just far enough away as to not be intrusive but watching over the Avatar like a mother hen. "You couldn't give up your love for her, could you?"

Aang averted his eyes, his face flushed with more than exertion. "Her love was the whole point of unlocking one of the chakras. How can I be asked to just stop loving her?"

Itachi was silent for a moment. "Giving up your bonds does not mean that you don't love. But, for instance, if your leg becomes infected no matter how much you are attached to it sometimes it is necessary to cut it off." He smiled. "Realize that you never really lose love… it merely transforms into new love."

Aang stared into the sky thoughtfully before responding. "I… think I'm beginning to understand."

- - -

At the apex of the Tenchi Bridge, a cloaked figure stood. A powerful wind blew around it, causing the figure's clothing to whip wildly about. Another person, hunched over and draped in Akatsuki garb, scuttled slowly across. "It has been a long time, Lord Sasori," the figure said. He turned, revealing his face to the other. It was Kabuto Yakushi.

"Were you followed?" Sasori asked.

"No, it's safe," Kabuto said.

"How are you?"

"When your jutsu was lifted, and I remembered who I was, I felt somewhat disoriented," Kabuto said. "I am still somewhat heavy handed."

"I have some questions for you."

"I have little time," Kabuto said. "So please make it brief. It was a great risk to slip away from Orochimaru to come here."

"Tell me about the location of your base and about Sasuke Uchiha."

Kabuto stared uncomfortably at the other, but responded. "We have many bases. To keep from being discovered, we change bases on a weekly basis. There are, of course, bases in countries besides Sound. Orochimaru's spies enter those countries and guide us. We have various movement methods, which can sometimes be cumbersome. Our current base is located in a small island in a lake north of here. We will move from there in three days. Sasuke Uchiha is also there."

An irregular rustling in the bush behind Kabuto caused him to start, and he turned quickly ready to strike. He spotted the intruder. "Just a wild rabbit," he said with relief. He turned back and continued. "By the way, about that one task you asked of me, Lord Sasori… even after his transmigration Orochimaru casts a jutsu on the cellular specimen of the left over corpse in order to protect it. I was unable to perform any data analysis of that specimen."

"I see," the black garbed man said.

In the trees, several silent figures lurked. One gestured to another and whispered, "That's definitely Akatsuki. Meeting with a spy, no doubt."

"What should we do?"

"Each Akatsuki is an S-class Criminal. It would require at least one team of a high level jounin and three chunin level ninja."

"Well, then, this should be a walk in the park."

"On that note," Kabuto continued on the bridge. "Please give me the item we talked about. I can't continue to stay here much longer. If it's found out that I'm meeting with you here like this, I'll be killed."

The Akatsuki hesitated, and then said, "Very well…" The next moment, his head was flying from his body.

Kabuto leaped out of his cloak, leaving it to be ripped to shreds by three green blurs. At the same time another figure leaped from Sasori's puppet body. Both men landed on opposite sides of the bridge, with a pack of women between them in white face paint and green armor.

"L-Lord Sasori," Kabuto called. "They might have had me had I not seen you begin to draw your kunai."

Yamato grimaced. Apparently, Kabuto had never seen Sasori's true form either. That might have been advantageous, but he knew that the moment he began fighting these unknown assailants with wood style techniques, he would be found out. "Who are you?" he asked.

"My name is Suki," said one of the women with short brown hair. "And we are the Kyoshi Kunoichi from the village of Kyoshi Island."

"I've heard of you," Yamato said. "A small village with their own force of kunoichi trained by Avatar Kyoshi, the first Avatar to master the ninja arts."

"And you're now facing two jounin level and six chuunin level kunoichi," Suki said. "Eight against two. I don't care how strong you two Akatsuki are, we're going to bring you down."

Yamato sighed. These girls certainly meant well, but they were really ruining the mission. "Listen," he began. "I'm not—"

Suddenly, huge snakes came at the Kyoshi Kunoichi from all sides. Suki drew her fan, slicing the head off of one while her fellows did the same. Four found themselves caught in the jaws of the snakes and were dragged screaming toward the side. Suki tossed her fan and sliced through one of the offending snakes, but the three remaining women were pulled under the bridge.

There was a short period of thumping underneath Tenchi Bridge, and then a torrent of serpents burst from the center. Orochimaru rose from their midst, pushing one of the Kyoshi Kunoichi from his blade. "I must thank you ladies," he said, licking the blade. His tongue wrapped around the hilt and then he swallowed it. "I might not have known that our target wasn't Sasori if you hadn't interfered. Aren't you glad you didn't waste the effort on him, Kabuto?"

"What?" Suki asked, her remaining four allies backing away toward Yamato.

"So this isn't Sasori…" Kabuto said. "Even as his subordinate I'd never seen his face. Always such a gloomy individual hiding in that puppet."

"You're supposed to be a spy for Daybreak!" Yamato said. "You should have been under the effect of Sasori's jutsu all this time."

"Ah, yes," Kabuto said. "Lord Orochimaru freed me from that technique quite some time ago."

"I hadn't expected you to change sides, acting as if you were still under the effect of Sasori's jutsu," Yamato admitted. "I suppose you fell prey to Orochimaru's own technique."

"Not exactly," Kabuto said lightly. "I fell prey to Lord Orochimaru's magnificent way of thinking. I chose this path myself. But tell me: who are you, anyway? We came here with the intention of killing Sasori, so this is quite the mishap."

"Kabuto," Orochimaru said. "I'll tell you about this little boy here afterward, but first thing's first. Why don't you bring those three other little mice hiding in the brush?"

Yamato hesitated. The Kyoshi Kunoichi had now moved to his side, deciding that anyone opposed to an infamous S-class criminal like Orochimaru was at least for the moment their ally. He motioned to his team behind Orochimaru and Kabuto, and they leaped out, landing meters from the bespectacled ninja.

Kabuto looked behind himself and smiled as he saw two familiar faces. "Ah, you again."

Orochimaru laughed. "I've seen that face a number of times. Since the Kyuubi boy is here let's play with them a bit. I'll give you the pleasure of telling you which has gotten stronger, you or Sasuke."

"He's… he's a vessel?" Suki gasped. "Girls, I think we've gotten in over our head."

"You've no idea…" Yamato muttered.

"Give… Sasuke back!" Naruto growled, his anger piqued by the snake ninja's comment.

Sakura and Sai, who flanked him, stared in surprise as they could see his chakra energy visibly manifest. It was a malevolent chakra, poisonous and evil.

"Give Sasuke back?" Kabuto asked. "You're getting off track. Sasuke came to us of his own accord. Because he wanted to. Why can't you just accept the truth?"

Sakura growled. "Shut up, Four Eyes! You don't understand how people _feel_! You only know cold logic."

"If you want to know about Sasuke," Orochimaru hissed. "Then perhaps you could turn over the prince… I'm afraid I did accept a mission to retrieve him, myself."

Naruto seemed to explode at this, throwing his teammates to the side of the bridge. Kabuto felt a burning sensation as something brushed past him, and when he turned, he saw a giant cloud of dust rising in the distance, and Naruto crouched in the place Orochimaru once stood, a red energy cloak surrounding him and a single chakra tail whipping behind him. He turned to glare at Kabuto.

"Naruto… you've matured quite a bit as a jinchuuriki," Kabuto said.

Sakura stared in horror at the desperate figure before her, recalling Chiyo's words about the jinchuuriki's capabilities when resonating with their bijuu. Thinking that Naruto was letting himself merge with a demon like that was… frightening.

"So that's why _he_ was chosen to be your watchdog, eh?" Orochimaru said from behind Yamato and the Kyoshi Warriors. They turned, shocked to see the snake ninja's face hanging off another, unfamiliar face underneath. The face of his stolen body. He reattached it and continued. "Konoha really ought to be more grateful to me, don't you think my cute little experiment?" He grinned repulsively at Yamato.

"Experiment?" Kabuto asked. "What do you mean?"

"There was a time I sought the power of the shinobi who was not only the ultimate wood style ninjutsu master, but also the one person who had total control over tailed beasts. Namely, the First Hokage… so I extracted his DNA and inserted it into the cells of 60 children. Unfortunately, their inferior bodies rejected the superior material. They died in rapid succession, one after another. I thought they'd all perished. I can't believe there was a survivor."

"You sacrificed 59 children just to replicate a kekkei genkai?" Suki asked. "You're more of a monster than the Bingo Book suggested."

"That's not fair," Orochimaru said. "My experiments will improve our understanding of the world. The human race as a whole will prosper. What's 59 lives in comparison?"

"The way you talk," Naruto snarled, another tail bubbling behind him. "Just keeps pissing me off!"

"We should obtain a sample after this," Kabuto suggested, ignoring Naruto.

"Yesssss," Orochimaru hissed. "And then we can pit Sasuke against Naruto and see once and for all who's strongest."

"You don't own Sasuke…" Naruto wheezed, and Orochimaru felt a sudden chill as Naruto's aura began to flare. "Don't talk about Sasuke like you own him!" He roared, three tails now forming. "Especially in front of me!"

"Kishar's claws!" Suki cursed. "I feel like I'm being stabbed with hot pins… and not in the good way!"

Orochimaru faced the Kyuubi chakra calmly, seeing its ghostly manifestation in his mind's eye. The Kyuubi roared through Naruto, the pressure of it pushing the snake ninja back. As the roar subsided, Orochimaru smirked, intrigued by the power of the little fox child.

"Three tails," Yamato said. "Damn!"

"Why 'damn'?" Suki asked. "What's the matter with three tails?"

"He's getting too worked up," Yamato said. "He can stay in control with three tails, but if another one forms, we'll be looking at a miniature fox demon with the power to kill even one of the Legendary Three."

Kabuto made the mistake of lunging at Naruto, who turned and with another roar stopped him in mid leap, destroying the center of the bridge as well. Kabuto flew back, crashing into Sakura, who then fell, hitting her head on the railing and blacking out.

The Tenchi Bridge began to collapse, but Yamato quickly used his wood style to sprout planks of wood from the cliff face, bracing the ends of the bridge. Sakura and Kabuto stopped sliding off while in a rage Naruto's chakra claw emerged from beneath the bridge and hit Orochimaru, then grabbed onto a nearby tree, pulling Naruto back up to the bridge. The bridge end Sakura was on began to tremble again, and Sakura continued to slide, still unconscious from the blow to her head.

Sai, behind her and Kabuto, who was dazed but conscious, pulled out a scroll. "Time for my true mission to begin," he said to himself as he quickly painted a bird onto the scroll. He tossed the scroll off the bridge and performed his technique, the Art of Cartoon Beast Mimicry. The drawing leaped from the page, growing into a large, solid bird made of ink.

"Sai!" Yamato cried as he saw Sakura slip off the bridge while Kabuto just managed to catch onto the railing. "Catch Sakura!"

Sai's bird glided just underneath Sakura's falling form, perfectly poised to catch her, but the young shinobi ignored her and Yamato's order and flew up past her and away from the battle.

"I got her!" Suki cried as she leaped off the bridge. She maneuvered herself on an intercept course with Sakura and caught her, and then drew her fan and did a quick series of hand signs. In a puff of smoke her fan was transformed into a glider.

Yamato sighed with relief. That relief was short lived however, for as Sai flew over the trees, seeming to desert his teammates, Yamato could feel Naruto's chakra changing again. He saw Orochimaru in a nearby tree missing an arm and Naruto was crouched before him with his three chakra tails waving in the wind. However, as the snake ninja shed his skin, revealing his body whole again, a fourth tail began to bubble forth.

Sailing in the air, Sakura regained consciousness. She gasped as she realized she was no longer on the ground. She looked around and saw the white faced Suki. "Wh-who? Where's Naruto?"

"If you mean blondie, he just maimed Orochimaru," Suki thumbed back to the battlefield. "I think your boyfriend's gone a bit nuts."

Sakura looked back and saw Naruto crouched like an animal. His flesh was peeling from his bones as the fox's caustic energy destroyed and regenerated his cells constantly. "Oh, no… this is the Kyuubi…"

"I've heard that the criminal group known as 'Akatsuki,'" Suki said. "Has been wanting to get their hands on the tailed beasts. I can see why. His power is incredible, and if he really is the Ninetails vessel, he's not even at full power."

Naruto roared, and a shockwave leveled the trees. Suki and Sakura were knocked out of the air, and Sai's painted bird was destroyed.

Orochimaru opened his mouth and snakes poured from it. The snakes slithered toward Naruto, snapping their jaws at the fox. Naruto waved his hand, and another shockwave blasted the snakes away, ripping them to shreds. He then slammed his hands into the ground, and his chakra arms extended deep into the earth. Orochimaru leaped away moments before the arms popped out of the ground. The arms merged into a giant arm and chased the snake ninja, who stopped and summoned a large snake from his sleeve, halting the large claw, though the snake began to burn from the poison chakra.

A new body emerged from Orochimaru's mouth and sped connected to his original body by a serpentine torso and punched the fox in the face. A new fox apparition emerged from Naruto's back and slashed this body in half, but a mass of snakes emerged from the gaping wound and pulled him back together.

The fox was already preparing for its next attack. Energy began to coalesce from the air, focusing between Kyuubi's four tails. A large sphere of dense, dark energy formed, causing Orochimaru to flinch.

"Oh, dear," Orochimaru said. "This is trouble, indeed." He leaped back from the beast. "Even for me being hit with such highly concentrated energy would be instant death!"

"His chakras are full of malice," Suki commented to Sakura. "It's so different from before… I've heard of it, though. With that amount of power the tailed beast's energy is trying to create a form closer to its beast's. But… the last vessel I'd heard of that put out that much power… she died in under a minute."

Sakura shivered. "But Naruto… what's happening to him…"

Naruto ate the ball of energy and his suddenly increased weight buckled the ground. His body inflated and then a beam of pure power erupted from his maw. Orochimaru acted quickly, biting his thumbs to summon the Triple Demon Gate. The beam connected with the huge gate that emerged in front of the snake ninja and the whole area blazed with a destructive explosion.

When the dust cleared, Kyuubi still stood crouched menacingly as Orochimaru's body lay in the dirt, seemingly broken and twisted, his head buried in the ground. A sword suddenly surfaced from underneath the Kyuubi, Orochimaru's head following on his elongated neck. Orochimaru hoisted the fox into the air on his sword it extended further out of his mouth, over the river into the opposite bank of the destroyed Tenchi Bridge.

Sakura, Suki, and her kunoichi grouped behind Yamato. "Naruto's been thrown over here."

"Isn't that the Kusanagi?" Suki asked. "I'd heard it cuts through almost anything, but it hasn't even scratched his… coat."

Naruto brushed the blade aside, forcing the other ninja to dodge the extra long sword. Orochimaru retracted the blade.

Kabuto now stood before his enemies and said pointedly to Sakura. "Take a look at that. Willing to become that just to rescue Sasuke."

Sakura remembered Naruto's promise to her nearly three years ago to bring Sasuke back to her. A lifetime promise that he would never go back on. Tears pricked at her eyes.

"By now, even his own senses are leaving him," Kabuto observed.

"Shut up," Suki said. "What do you think you're doing here, anyway?"

"Sakura!" Yamato shouted as he saw Sakura suddenly dash toward Naruto. "Don't go near Naruto when he's like this!"

Kabuto didn't make a move to stop her. Tears streaming down her face, she called out to him, "Enough already! I'll rescue Sasuke for you! So… so you don't have to…" Suki had made a move, reacting quicker than anyone else. In spite of her heavy armor, she caught up to Sakura just as Naruto noticed her and lashed out blindly with his tail. Suki tackled Sakura aside and blocked the strike with her brass shield. The shield shattered and she fell back to the ground.

Yamato's wood jutsu restrained Kyuubi before it could attack again. He ran to the transformed ninja and performed a new technique. "Hokage Style Forced Retirement Jutsu: Return of Innocence – Enclosing Palm!" The character for "seat" appeared on his palm and he pushed his hand into the fox cloak's chest. He then leaped back, pulling a banner of energy with him as several wooden posts emerged surrounding the Kyuubi. Yamato continued to draw the caustic energy away and Naruto's true body became visible as the cloak dropped away.

Kabuto began to approach Naruto, who was now unconscious on the ground, his flesh raw and red. Suddenly, he found two kunai at his throat, Suki and one of her kunoichi being the holders. "We're not going to let you near them," Suki said.

"Hold on," Kabuto said. "I'm trying to help. Naruto is going to need help after that kind of punishment."

"Why should you try to help him?" Suki asked. "He's your enemy."

"He's also Akatsuki's enemy," Kabuto said. "Evidence suggests that they have already taken out Sasori of Daybreak, and we would be appreciative if he were to take a few more down, as well." He reached his hand out and a wave of healing energy washed over Naruto as Sakura also ministered to him.

On the other side of the river, Orochimaru heaved as he looked at his blackening arms. "It's like I thought… the technique I used to take the blind girl's body has caused this body's rejection of my spirit to accelerate. It won't be long now…" He turned as he sensed someone's presence.

"I'm a hand of Lord Danzo," Sai said to the snake ninja with a polite smile. "I'm not an enemy. I have something I'd like to talk to you about."

Orochimaru smirked.

- - -

The Earth King regarded the Dai Li kneeling before him. "It is good that Long Feng had a protégé to replace him in such an unfortunate circumstance. Still… it is hard to believe that the Avatar was responsible for his death."

"It is difficult to believe, I agree," the Earth Shadow said. "But they say that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and there are few as powerful as the Avatar… and it has not been unheard of for an Avatar to overstep his or her bounds."

"Yes," the king said. "Well, Tsuchikage Azula, I trust you and the Dai Li to keep Ba Sing Se safe."

The golden eyed princess smiled at the king. "I won't disappoint you, my liege."


	19. The Earth Shadow

**Elements of War**

**Chapter 18**

**The Earth Shadow**

The Dai Li crept in the shadows, tracking their target. The target was swift and agile, aware of her surroundings, and quiet as a soft breeze. However, they were ninja trained from birth as the ultimate assassins, a function of which even the sheltered king they served did not know. One of their squad advanced, going for a killing blow, but they knew this target was too perceptive to be taken out quickly even by them. This was merely a feint.

When the target turned on the assassin, dispatching him with a crackling blade, another attack was made, pulling the target's feet into the earth. Another Dai Li descended from above, grabbing her from behind and locking her arms. The target grinned and the agent sensed the massive chakra imbalance only moments before the target detonated.

The eye patched team leader spotted the target moments before his last remaining squad member was brought down by a strike from behind. He decided it was time for a direct confrontation. Leaping from the shadows, he hurled the stones of his glove at the target, and performed a ninjutsu while the target dodged. His technique charged several stones with energy that would home in on the target's chakra and would shatter into shrapnel upon reaching certain proximity.

The target tried to dodge at first, but realizing the futility, struck at the stones. The nearest stone exploded, showering the target with shrapnel, but the target didn't let this become a distraction, and used fire style techniques to destroy the others.

A metallic click informed the target that the leader of the Dai Li squad had managed to circle behind and used his cuffs. The target turned and explosively kicked at the attacker. Flames licked at the Dai Li's face, but he didn't let the singeing of his flesh bother him. He pulled the target closer and struck physically.

The target was skilled, however, in physical combat and as he had noted before was quite agile. After a short struggle, the Dai Li found his target had managed to twist him around to a precarious position, pushing him off balance. He tried to earthbend to support himself, but the target added energy to the momentum, causing him to lose balance once again, and the agent found himself on the ground, a glowing blade of light at his throat. He stared into fierce golden eyes. Funny, he thought to himself, he could have sworn they were green.

"Very good, Tsuchikage," the Dai Li said. "Your skills haven't grown too rusty while you were away." He grinned, and pressed his kunai firmly into the Earth Shadow's gut. "But I'm afraid you _have_ gotten rusty."

Azula rose, letting the lightning blades sprouting from her elbows fade. Her expression was haughty but there was a hint of embarrassment. She wasn't used to being matched by anyone, even if he was one of the most elite ninja in the most elite group of Iwagakure. Of course, the implication that he believed her skills had atrophied was also irksome, implying that the woman he thought she was might be better than her. That was an unacceptable thought. "You'll have to refresh me, Master Toshiro. I'm afraid in mastering firebending I've neglected my ninjutsu."

"And you have mastered bending quite thoroughly, as well," Toshiro said. "I'm quite impressed. I should expect no less from a former student of mine, of course."

This man had actually been the teacher of another girl who would have been her age had she not died recently. It was fairly simple to cast her in the role of this girl in his memories with the very technology they used to brainwash the population of Ba Sing Se combined with Sasuke's sharingan. Any differences in her appearance and behavior his mind would reconcile by either attributing it to her absence or would simply rewrite his memories completely. He and the rest of the Dai Li remained in a highly suggestible state specifically to her as well, which made controlling them even easier than usual.

"It will be very difficult for you to hold power as Tsuchikage, Azula," The master ninja said gravely. "Lord Fourth usurped Oonoki's position years ago through political maneuvering and deception, and as you witnessed, Lord Third deposed your teacher in a far more violent manner. Either option is quite likely in this particular village."

Azula smirked. "I think I can handle a little heavy handed politics."

"I hope so…" Toshiro said.

The two turned as another figure clad in Dai Li garb approached silently. It was Mai, her face stony and unreadable. "Lady Earth Shadow," she acknowledged the princess with the merest hint of derision in her tone. "Our Sound contact reports the snake has returned to the burrow."

Toshiro frowned as Azula acknowledged her friend. "I am still wary of these talks with Otogakure. Their leader is an S-class missing-nin from Konohagakure. The entire village may be just as rogue as Rain has become."

"We won't have to worry about them for much longer, Toshiro," Azula assured the man. "Come, Mai, let's go see what's become of our friends."

- - -

Azula didn't need prodigious perception to tell Orochimaru had seen better times. He was breathing heavily and sweating profusely, and it may have been nothing more than sheer stubbornness keeping him on his feet. And, being the prodigy she was, she knew this was no ordinary exhaustion from a fight. He was very ill, and this was very fortunate for her.

Unexpectedly, however, Orochimaru had brought a guest. Sasuke had just met this pale, smiling boy before the princess had entered, and seemed unimpressed. It was no wonder, Azula noted. This boy was wearing the same insignia as the blond boy she had followed while looking for his brother, which meant he was from the same village. The village Sasuke had abandoned.

Orochimaru saw the princess enter the room and straightened, all obvious signs of his fatigue vanishing. "Princess. It seems we have a guest from the Leaf Village of your Fire Nation. He has provided us with much crucial intelligence on the order of our Danzo." He smiled broadly. "Apparently the runner-up Hokage is quite the nationalist and supports our efforts to bring in a Fire Nation traitor and the Avatar who has been corrupted by the criminal organization, Akatsuki."

"And to that end," Azula said coyly. "He has no problem consorting with traitors to one of the Fire Nation's sponsored ninja villages."

"I cannot presume to fathom my master's methods, nor his ends," Sai said softly, with that same steady smile. "I am merely his tool. However," he turned to Sasuke. "I find myself curious… as to what someone like Naruto could see in someone like you… to call you 'brother.'"

Sasuke's eyes almost imperceptibly narrowed at this. Azula had already guessed that he did not like being reminded of Naruto. Though he claimed to have severed all feelings for his old partner, it was obvious to those that knew him that enough remained to irritate him. "Naruto…" Sasuke said. "Is an idiot. Last place in our graduating class. What does his opinion matter?" He turned to Orochimaru. "Hey. Are you going to teach me a new form, now? I've been waiting patiently."

Orochimaru hissed softly. "Perhaps later, boy. I have more pressing matters to attend." He turned to Sai. "Make yourself at home, young Root. You're one of us, now." Kabuto followed Orochimaru from the room at a discreet distance, though Azula knew he was ready to spring to his master's aid should he so much as stumble.

Sasuke snorted and left the room as well, giving Azula a look that told her he did not approve of this new addition. No matter. She hadn't particularly approved of the blind girl. This boy, however… she turned to him and nodded slightly. He returned the gesture, still with that impenetrable smile on his face. Yes, she had been expecting this addition.

- - -

Karin opened her eyes and looked toward the mountain range in the distance. Far up they could see ancient ruins. "It looks like they're heading to the old Eastern Air Temple," she said. "Guess the Avatar felt homesick."

Suigetsu grimaced. "You know, those airbenders may have been pacifists, but they could sure put up a fight. The northern airbenders decimated the Fire Nation Army before they even reached the temple." He laughed. "They were strong, but they didn't quite know how to maneuver with their newfound powers of flight. Of course, once they had their feet on the ground the airbenders didn't have much chance. Still, they managed to take out about half the troops before the last one fell."

"Wow," Ty Lee said. "Weren't you scared?"

Karin snorted. "Ty Lee, that happened a hundred years ago. This jackass isn't _that _old."

"Right," Suigetsu said with a laugh. "I heard about it from my parents."

"Let's hurry," Karin said. "They're sitting still right now, but once they get to the temple, we can't be sure what kind of fortifications they might have."

Several kilometers away, Aang made his way across the ground with a boulder on his back as pillars of stone pushed his feet up high with every step. "Keep your knees high, Twinkletoes," Toph instructed. "My mother could run circles around you, you pansy!"

"Aang's… having a bit of trouble with this, isn't he?" Sokka noted from a ledge in the distance overlooking the two.

"She shouldn't be so hard on him," Katara said with a scowl. "Aang responds better to positive reinforcement."

"I understand Avatar Roku had quite a bit of trouble mastering waterbending," Itachi commented. His eyes were still bandaged and recovering from his fight with the Orochimaru-possessed Toph. "I suspect, though, that Aang will overcome his mental impediments quickly. His experiences have been far more expansive than many past Avatars."

"I still think she's enjoying herself too much," Katara said with a petulant huff.

Sokka scratched his head. "Well, she hasn't dropped a boulder on him, yet, so I'd say things are going well."

"_Do~odge_!" Toph screamed as she kicked a large, round stone down a decline at the young Avatar.

Sokka cleared his throat and continued. "Okay, so she hasn't dropped a boulder on him without warning him, first."

"I trust Mistress Bei Fong," Itachi said. "After what Orochimaru did to her, she is likely eager for revenge. Besides, she is a free spirit. She cares little for our causes and missions as long as she's having fun."

"Yeah," Katara said petulantly. "I could tell when she freely decided not to help us put our tents up last night."

"Her social skills do seem to be lacking," Itachi conceded.

"You're one to talk," Sokka said with a roll of his eyes. "… Uh, hey. You remember that white haired guy with the shark teeth?"

"Yeah," Katara said. "What about him?"

"Well, he and two dangerous looking ladies are riding up to us on those Fire Nation lizards," Sokka said.

Katara sprang up, popping the water from her flask. "Sokka! You were supposed to be watching for anyone pursuing us!"

"Me?" Sokka protested. "What about Itach—" he looked at the blindfolded ninja and hesitated. "Or Toph could've—" He paused. "Well, _you_ could have been watching!"

"This is no time to point fingers!" Katara said. "Hold it right there you three," she said firmly as the three enemies came to a stop.

"Don't worry," Suigetsu said. "We're just here to take back our poor, lost teammate."

"She's not going back with you," Katara said. "She was tortured by your boss, Orochimaru."

Ty Lee gasped. "That old guy? I knew he needed a tan and he's pretty creepy, but I didn't think he was doing anything like that!"

Suigetsu snorted. "That doesn't matter. Orochimaru's not going to be around much longer."

"He_ is_ sick," Karin conceded. "His current body will reject him soon, but he does have a technique that will allow him to switch to another body!" She smirked at Suigetsu. "He won't die so easy, and neither will Sasuke."

Suigetsu rolled his eyes. "No, you four-eyed idiot," he said impatiently. "I mean we're going to kill him."

"Huh?" Karin said.

"Huh?" Katara said.

"Neat!" Sokka said.

"Or rather, Sasuke is going to kill him," Suigetsu said. "Of course, Princess Azula will be more than happy to help."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Karin said. "You can't kill Orochimaru! He's our leader! He saved us!"

"He saved you," Suigetsu said. "You were lucky enough to be a jailer. I was the jailed." He snorted. "The only reason I didn't kill him myself was that Sasuke promised me a shot at his brother's partner if I went along with everything." He drew his gigantic blade from his back. "I'm aching to add that sword of his to my collection."

"Wait, now guys," Ty Lee said. "Maybe we can settle this civilly? I mean, Orochimaru tortured Toph and kept Suigetsu prisoner, right? You certainly don't agree with that do you, Karin?"

"I have no problem with the latter, actually," Karin said.

"O… kay. Well, why does Sasuke want to kill Orochimaru, Suigetsu?" Ty Lee asked.

"Something about Orochimaru wanting his body," Suigetsu said.

Karin's glasses fogged up. "Oh… ohhhh, _my_!"

Itachi coughed uncomfortably and cut in. "In fact," he said. "Orochimaru is planning on using my foolish little brother as his next host, in which his mind will suppress Sasuke's much like he did Toph's, but more permanently in this case."

"And…" Sokka said. "He agreed to this? Wow. He must really hate you, Itachi. What did you _do_ exactly?"

"Wait a minute!" Karin said. "Orochimaru is going to use _my_ Sasuke's body as a host?" Her lizard reared beneath her and she started to turn it around. "Death to Orochimaru!"

"Whoa, Four-eyes," Suigetsu said. "Toph first, remember? Besides, Sasuke's got this."

"I'm glad we were able to solve this little conflict," Ty Lee said with a clap. "See how much we can solve when we just talk things out?"

"Right, now let's beat these guys up and take Toph back!" Suigetsu cheered.

Sokka held up his hands. "Wait a minute. What happened to talking things out?"

"Will you give us Toph?" Ty Lee said.

"No!" Katara growled.

"Diplomacy has broken down," Suigetsu announced. "We have no choice but to pursue a military solution."

- - -

Suki stopped her kunoichi as the Konoha ninja sojourned. "Is your traitor nearby?"

Yamato nodded. "The tracking seed I put in Sai's food is around half a kilometer from here." He turned to the Kyoshi Kunoichi. "Listen. This isn't your responsibility. Sai and Orochimaru are both Konoha's responsibility."

Suki scowled. "That snake killed three members of the Kyoshi Kunoichi. They were our friends." She looked to the other four kunoichi, who nodded with determined expressions. "We're in."

"Alright," Yamato said. "We'll split up to search the compound for Sai. Here," he said, holding out a handful of seeds. "These will keep me in contact with you all, just like Sai." Naruto and Sakura took them without hesitation, while the kunoichi from Kyoshi Island paused. "I assure you, they'll pass right through you just like last night's dinner. I'll have no way of tracking you after that."

Suki nodded with a smile. "Of course." She took a seed as her companions did the same.

"Naruto and Sakura, you two will go together that way," Yamato said. "I will go myself this way."

"I'll go with Naruto and Sakura," Suki said. "Kirei will come with me." She pointed at the other jounin from Kyoshi Island. "And Oneh will take her team with Yamato."

With the search parties agreed upon, they separated, combing the Sound's compound for their targets.

Meanwhile, in a dimly lit room in the Sound country hideout, Orochimaru sweat and wheezed in his bed. Kabuto had given him the drugs to suppress his body's rejection of his spirit, but it wasn't helping. The technique he had used to implant part of his spirit in the blind earthbending girl accelerated the process. On the positive side, he would now be able to take Sasuke's body sooner than expected due to the weakening of the bonds of his spirit to this body. He laughed as he thought about that prospect. He had dreamed so long of having those eyes which would allow him to see through any technique.

Suddenly, lightning cracked the door, and Orochimaru jerked upright. A blade of electricity was speeding toward him. He didn't have time to think, but just brought his arms up to block. However, shackles of earth encased his arms and his hands were pulled out to either side of his body. The blade of lightning pierced his chest and he grunted in pain as he felt the shock of the current now running through his body to the ground.

Orochimaru looked to either side. Dai Li agents had managed to infiltrate his room. He really wasn't at his best it seemed. Looking back at the doorway from where the blade that now skewered him had come, he grimaced. "I expected it, but not so soon."

The blade dissipated and the door blew off its hinges in blue flame. The Fire Princess and Earth Shadow stood confidently in the doorway, her hand on cocked hip. "Don't be so surprised, Orochimaru. Now that I have an entire village of ninja on my side, I just don't need you anymore. Besides, my father would hate for it to get out that he had honestly consorted with a criminal like you. Bad for his reputation."

Orochimaru coughed, blood spewing from his mouth. "I see. So was this just a set up all this time? But for what?"

Azula grinned. "Dai Li. Crush his arms. We don't want to give him even the chance of using his jutsu no matter how weak he is right now."

The two Dai Li at either side of the snake ninja's bed squeezed his arms, and they audibly cracked. The snake ninja grunted and hacked, but otherwise retained impressive composure. "Danzou!" he hissed. "He's behind this!"

"I can't say who it is that my father is dealing with, but there are those in your former village that would do anything, even break the treaty that has long given you cowardly ninja peace, to see you and your protégé dead."

"Ah, so that's it," Orochimaru said with a grin. "That old hawk always did have his eye on the Hokage position." He began to laugh. "Well… that Sai… he's going to be in for a shock when he tries to assassinate Sasuke. Our Sasuke is quite cranky when he's woken up."

The ground suddenly began to quake, causing the Dai Li and Azula to stumble. "That's our boy," Orochimaru said, and then his tongue shot out, transforming into a snake. The snake opened its mouth as it shot toward Azula and a blade shot from _its_ mouth, then followed by an arm and Orochimaru's head and torso. Orochimaru slashed Azula's tunic as she fell backward.

Orochimaru's whole body emerged from the snake and bore down on the princess, who rolled out of the way and sprang to her feet. The two exchanged blows, Azula parrying the sword thrusts while her own fire strikes were rapped out of the way. The princess finally landed a blow, her blue flames searing the ninja's face. He fell but recovered in such a way as to whirl about on the ground and sweep Azula's legs out from under her.

The two Dai Li, the eye patched Toshiro and an older looking ninja with a burn scar on his neck, had by this time come to the princess' aid and prevented Orochimaru from attacking her while she was down. The snake ninja had little trouble avoiding their attacks, slashing at them lazily while they blocked with their stone gauntlets.

Azula lunged at Orochimaru from behind, lightning blades emerging from her elbows as she flew through the air. At the same time, Orochimaru's grabbed the older Dai Li's incoming fist and molded the man's fingers with his own, forcing him through a series of quick hand seals. Smoke exploded as Azula slashed down through Orochimaru's body. She heard the scream, but the body that fell to the ground was that of the Dai Li.

Orochimaru's snake were on Azula before she could blink, slithering all over her and tearing at her flesh and clothing. Toshiro was quick to aid her, though, hammering Orochimaru with the stones of his gauntlets. The snake ninja howled in pain. _Those stones are hitting my pressure points… an interesting twist on the Byakugan's abilities,_ the cold analytical part of his mind thought through the pain. He turned on the Dai Li and struck like a serpent, not allowing the stiffness and pain caused by the attack to bother him.

- - -

"You want… to bring me back?"

Sai looked passively at the traitor to his village. In spite of his lack of respect for this man and the incredulity with which he viewed his temporary teammates' infatuation with him, "Yes. Yes, I do. I'm curious about these bonds Naruto and Sakura feel for you."

"I severed my bonds with them long ago," Sasuke said in a dead voice.

"Naruto," Sai said. "He sees you as a brother. He would do anything to save you, for no reason I can comprehend. It seems stupid to me, but… I can't help but want to salvage those bonds. For Naruto."

"That dunce," Sasuke said with a sneer. "Really made an impression on you."

"Sasuke!" a familiar voice shouted. Sasuke turned and saw the aforementioned blond run into view. His room was now exposed to the sky after his rude awakening, and the sunlight left him in silhouette to his former teammate while the fox ninja seemed to glisten. He then saw unfamiliar kunoichi clad in green with painted faces run into view. Finally, he saw the cherry blossom haired kunoichi who had once confessed her love for him so long ago as he set out on his path of vengeance.

"Naruto," Sasuke acknowledged. "And Sakura. You're both fools to have come here."

Naruto frowned. "Last time, Sasuke, the Avatar and Azula got in my way, but I swear this time…"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "We've been through this. You can't beat me. I know the source of your power, and it's of no consequence to me now. That fox of yours is nothing to the sharingan."

Sakura looked from Sasuke to Sai. "You!" she said angrily. "We saw your hit list. You can't…"

"Don't worry," Sai said. "I chose… not to fulfill my mission in this case. I'm with you."

"Well, that's convenient," Suki said, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "I suppose that excuses your leaving Sakura to drop like a rock."

"What?" Naruto said, turning to Sai.

"Now's not the time!" Sakura objected before the blond ninja could go into protective mode. "We're taking Sasuke back, now!" She dashed forward, lunging at Sasuke with full intent to pummel him into submission if she had to.

Sasuke snorted and put his hand to the hilt of his sword. He drew with incredible speed, the blade coming at Sakura for a cleaving blow. It was too quick for even her to dodge.

The sword stopped in midswing, caught by a hand unfamiliar to Sasuke. The almond eyes that glared into his were equally unfamiliar. Sakura had been pushed out of the way by this man, a jounin by appearance, and he had caught the blade with nothing but a shallow cut to show for it. The rogue ninja scoffed and electricity coursed through his body as he performed the chidori nagashi technique. Yamato flew was thrown back by the shock, but landed feet first, mostly unaffected.

"I don't have time for this," Sasuke growled. "Perhaps I should finish you all off with my final technique…" He began to raise his hand to the sky. "Yes… I expended enough energy when I woke up to make a decent demonstration." He smiled. "I said before, Naruto, that I could kill you on a whim. With this technique, one of you _will_ die."

- - -

The two green clad fighters were slowly but surely wearing the Sound leader down. He was already wheezing when they began, but now it sounded like he would cough up a lung soon. His strikes were slower and weaker, and their blows were definitely connecting.

Toshiro raised a fist to bring down on the snake ninja, but then he whirled around and swept his arm in front of him, catching several shuriken in his gauntlet. He looked down the hall to see a white haired and bespectacled Sound ninja smiling pleasantly at him. Kabuto, Orochimaru's sadistic medical ninja, had arrived on the scene to assist his master.

Orochimaru was able to use the distraction to beat Azula back and he performed a quick jutsu before Toshiro could turn his attention back to the snake ninja. He pressed his palm to the floor and a small demon gate sprung up, separating him and Azula from Toshiro and Kabuto. "There," he said. "Now it's just me and you." He licked his lips at the girl.

Azula rarely felt fear. It was almost a foreign emotion for her. When a normal person was frightened she would become more focused and feel something like a euphoric high. She loved danger. But the look this old man gave her sent shivers down her spine like only that horrible dream with which Itachi had cursed her could.

She attacked again, not allowing the fear to hold her back, and they exchanged blows. She caught one of the Sound ninja's arms and twisted his sword out of his hand; then she tossed him into the summoned gate. She breathed deeply and then let the blue-hot flames blossom from her fingertips, washing over the snake ninja like a dragon's breath.

Orochimaru's hand shot out at her from the dying flames and grabbed her head, driving her into the floor. The rest of the ninja followed as he leaped for her, landing in a crouch over her. His burnt lips parted in an evil grin as he held the princess down in his steely grip. He ran his other hand across his melted face and with a laugh peeled half of the skin from his face off, revealing the unblemished face of a young man. The eyes, however, were still unmistakably Orochimaru's.

"What are you?" Azula choked out.

"The man who's going to kill you," Orochimaru said, drawing a kunai. "Pity I won't collect the money from your father, but now I have something better. Something I'll be able to use to my great advantage…"

Azula spat a small fireball into Orochimaru's face before he could bring the knife down on her, and grabbed his arm, writhing and twisting beneath him, flipping him over. Now their positions were reversed and she pushed the kunai in the snake ninja's hand toward his throat. "You're the man I'm going to kill, actually."

The snake struggled to keep the kunai back, but he could feel the cold metal touch his flesh. Then he saw something. Azula's tunic had been damaged in the fight. Enough that he could glimpse her bare chest, where a familiar mark was visible. He grinned. "Well, well… no one thought to tell a poor old man that he was dealing with a vessel…"

"What…?" Azula said, faltering.

Orochimaru's free hand shot out, allowing Azula to slice at the snake ninja's throat, but when his fingers touched her bare flesh, she screamed, letting up the pressure. Orochimaru sprang up, pinning the girl against the wall and ripping the tunic for a clearer view of the seal. He adjusted his fingers, letting his chakra energy flow into her. "Yes… yes, I see what's been done. You must have been a difficult one to control. The original seal calls for a full connection between your chakra and your beast's… but it seems someone stopped that reservoir completely."

The seal on her chest began to change, popping and sizzling at it did. "Poor thing. You'd have been dead before you reached marriageable age when that dam burst. Let me help you with that… mind, it will hurt and you may die anyway. But… you might not." He laughed as her scream intensified, but then he was cut off as a barrage of knives knocked him away.

Mai drew another handful of knives as she said in her usual deadpan, "That's enough of that, perv."

Azula was on her knees, now, clutching at her face with tears of pain streaking her makeup. She looked up at Orochimaru, who seemed to be shrugging off the knives with little problem. Her face contorted from one of pain to one of uncontrolled rage. She roared and attack with a wild flame attack. The snake ninja easily dodged, but she kept firing, the flames burning a bright yellow with only a tinge of blue to them. She had to stop after a moment, though, and it was then she realized her hands had actually caught fire.

Azula panicked, images of her body burning in a blue fire, her flesh melting, flashed through her mind. Mai shoved Azula against the wall before she could become too hysterical and smothered the flames. "Azula," she said firmly. "Calm down. He's done something to you… just sit this out."

"How precious," Orochimaru said. "Are the bonds of friendship. And how fragile as well."

"Shut up," Mai said, turning around with a bored look on her face. "You're a real drag, you know that?"

- - -

Ty Lee's fingers shot out, only for her knuckles to be rapped by a Southern Water Tribe club. She drew back, her lips in a pout. "Oh! You naughty boy! How _could_ you strike me in such a way!"

Sokka struggled to keep his left eyebrow from gaining the higher ground on his right. Something was just not quite right with this girl. He didn't have time to think about that, however, as she was also very fast. Her hands shot out again with lightning fast speed, and he was only barely able to dodge.

At the same time, Katara was expertly parrying Suigetsu's mammoth blade with her swirling waterbending and using the momentum of her parry to spin back around for counter attacks. The sharp toothed ninja seemed only mildly perturbed.

Suigetsu withdrew from Katara and shot a jet of water from his gullet at the girl. She thrust her arms at the blast, splitting it in two though she was pushed back several meters by the force of the torrent. She braced herself and then split the stream further from her, swirling it around her body.

Suigetsu stopped his attack and split into five, racing around the waterbender and attacking from all sides. The Antarctic native formed the water into tentacles so numerous they obscured her from view, and they lashed out at the incomers, tossing them, slapping them aside, and even stabbing at them. Two of Suigetsu's clones converged near the center of the mass of tentacles, forcing Katara to part the waters protecting her as she attacked them, scattering their droplets to the wind.

Suigetsu himself charged through the brief opening, which came down on him like twin tidal waves. However, his blade struck true, impaling Katara through the stomach. He grinned as the tentacles collapsed into a puddle around them.

Katara regurgitated a clear liquid onto the blade that had run her through. Then she burst into dewdrops. Suigetsu didn't have time to gasp before hands grabbed his ankles from below, pulling him to the ground. Katara seemed to melt in reverse out of the pool of water, and she parted the ankles she held as far as she could before landing a powerful kick at their junction.

The waterbender didn't let up on the Mist rogue. She whipped his sword away and attacked him as he attempted to get to his feet, and when he did she launched a shark fang technique.

Suigetsu was perturbed at this point, and angrily rebuffed her attack with brute force. He then began to waterbend, himself, and sent a surge of water toward the girl. She rapidly formed hand signs, but then the rush of water hit her. He could see her body trapped within the liquid, but she seemed to right herself easily and glared at him. The ninja puzzled for an instant. Then… _The Mist Reflection technique!_

The image of the girl seemed to streak out of sight, and Suigetsu turned, seeing the reflection of Katara in the part of that stream of water he had bent behind him. But, he realized in the instant before she attacked, this wasn't the reflection. He realized why she had seemed to disappear a moment before only to emerge from the water. That was the technique's power: to momentarily become a reflection in water. It was a technique developed to its full potential by a family descended from an old host of Sanbi's, who had managed to inherit its ability to use both wind and water styles. In that case it was improved by the ability to quickly fly from one reflective mirror to another using wind style, making it more difficult to expose them by process of elimination.

Katara thrust her fist into Suigetsu's back, an icy spike protruding from her knuckles. The spear snapped off and Suigetsu staggered around. Katara fully emerged from the water and struck the ninja in the face, her knuckles encrusted with sharp ice. She struck him again and again, and then uppercut him, sending him falling to the ground.

"Wh-where did you learn that technique…?" Suigetsu sputtered as he collected himself.

Katara was panting heavily, having expended far too much energy on the technique. "From… Kisame…"

"It figures…" Suigetsu muttered. "The last shinobi to master that technique was Zabuza senpai's dog. Kisame must have…" Before he could finish, Katara performed another shark's fang technique. The attack hit him, carving a groove in the earth.

Karin rushed to Suigetsu's aide, but the blindfolded Itachi stood in her way. She punched at the young man who moved her fist aside and backfisted her to the ground. Her spectacles flew off her face, the lenses cracking as they hit the ground. "Dammit!" she growled.

The red haired kunoichi stood as the raven haired older brother of her fixation removed his blindfold, revealing bloodshot and unfocused eyes. "You're going down!" she said and she leaped at him, delivering a sharp roundhouse… which passed centimeters from his nose.

Itachi smirked and leaped forward, his speeding fist… clipping Karin's ear. He paused and they looked in each other's general direction uncomfortably.

Then Karin spun for a hook punch, which Itachi block before sending his fist deep into her gut, knocking her meters away. The Uchiha looked around, satisfying himself that no one had seen the previous blunder.

Katara staggered through the puddle of water that her technique had become, befuddled as to what could have happened to her opponent. Scanning the water, she could see no image that implied he had used the same technique as her, and yet…

Water sprang up around her, trapping her body up to the neck in a sphere. Fingers appeared next to the hilt of Zabuza's old sword and a hand grabbed it at the rest of the beefy arm emerged from the water. Suigetsu surfaced completely nude with a toothy grin. "Stupid novice!" he said. "Anything you can do… I can do better!"

Suigetsu dashed toward Katara, leaping into the air and bringing the sword to bear on her skull. Katara's eyes widened and her blood froze as she saw the edge of the blade coming down. That would be no clean slice. That was meant to be a blunt, messy instrument of death. Then…

_Crunch_.

Suigetsu's muscles strained to connect the sword with his enemy's head, but it was no use. The blade was lodged between two stone pillars that had emerged diagonally from the earth. He looked behind Katara and saw Toph standing with her hands on her hips staring—as much as she was able—at him with exasperation.

"Hey," Toph said. "That's enough, shark boy."

"Toph!" Ty Lee said, turning her attention from her prolonged battle with Sokka. The water tribe boy swung his club at her head which she dodged without glancing, and then her arms were a blur, tapping a multitude of his pressure points almost simultaneously. The boy collapsed to the ground.

"Hey, guys," Toph said nonchalantly. "What's up?"

Ty Lee bounced over to the diminutive earthbender and gathered her up in her arms, squeezing the breath out of her. "Ooh, we missed you so much! We thought something _horrible_ had happened to you!"

"!" Toph wheezed. The acrobat planted her back onto her native element and the small warrior patted her clothes down. "Nice to see you, too, Ty Lee. Anyway… something horrible _did_ happen."

"Huh?" Ty Lee said.

"Orochimaru," Toph said quietly. "The guy always seemed creepy, but that guy… he _violated_ me."

Suigetsu, who at this point had given up on removing his sword from the pillars, shook his head. "Somehow… somehow I'm not surprised. I mean, he always struck me as the type, and he and that pervy toad sage used to be tight from what I hear…"

"He took over my mind," Toph growled. "And then he made me attack Itachi, which I'd have been happy to do on my own, but definitely not on those terms."

"Come on, Toph," Ty Lee said. "You've gotta come back. Sasuke misses you."

Toph blushed and turned her head. "I didn't say I wasn't coming back."

"What?" Aang said. "But what about what Orochimaru did to you? And what about my training?"

"I could hear everything from where we were watching down there. Vibrations travel really well through the ground," Toph said. "Orochimaru's going to try to do to Sasuke what he did to me. I can't let that happen."

"But he's a bad guy!" Sokka said from his prone position on the ground.

Toph shrugged. "Hey, listen, you guys seem great. I kinda like you, really. But these are my friends. And I probably shouldn't let Azula get herself killed, either…"

"Let her get killed!" Sokka screamed.

"The point is," Toph said. "I can't just sit back while a friend is in need."

"But…" Aang said. "_I_ need you. I can't master earthbending without you. Besides…"

"Back up, Twinkletoes," Toph said. "I can see where you're going, and I'm not going to watch you get all choked up like some little girl. Besides, you're doing fine. Just keep practicing on your own, and maybe you'll be sharp enough for me to teach you some _real_ earthbending when we see each other again."

Aang seemed about to protest again, but then he relaxed. "Alright, Toph." He said. "I think I understand. I can't stop you. Just be careful."

"Aw, shucks," Toph said, punching Aang in the arm. The bald boy collapsed to the ground.

- - -

Thunder crashed in the sky just to the west of Ba Sing Se. The inhabitants of the city weren't too concerned about the sudden appearance of the storm. Over their great wall, the citizens couldn't see much of anything. Only one man in the city, currently applying at a local tea shop, realized the ill omen of the rumbling thunderhead.

Sasuke looked from one shinobi to another. His gaze finally settled on one, and he opened his mouth. "Ka…"

Suki slashed Sasuke's back from behind, knocking him forward. The rogue ninja spun around to see who was attacking him, and she began to smack him across the face with her fans. Finally she front kicked him down onto the ground and leaped on top of him, her razor edged fans to his throat. "Take me to Orochimaru, _now_!"

"Wow," Naruto said. "She didn't even wait for him to reveal his ultimate technique."

"Naruto…" Yamato said exasperatedly. "You're not supposed to let your enemy finish his ultimate technique."

"I was curious…" Naruto said.

Sasuke locked his ruby eyes directly on Suki's emerald irises. "You've made an egregious error." In an instant, it seemed to Suki that Sasuke's body burst into flame. The young warrior couldn't help but draw back for a moment, though in that same instant she recognized it as a genjutsu. Before she could correct herself, Sasuke had already taken advantage and thrust her off of him. He got to his feet and warded off the other kunoichi coming to apprehend him.

Yamato moved to restrain the Uchiha, but there was suddenly a great paw on his shoulder, and he found himself unwillingly and violently introduced to the nearby wall. A half transformed Juugo entered the scene with an eyepatched Dai Li on his shoulder.

"Sasuke!" Juugo said. "Azula and Mai… they're trapped with Orochimaru! He's going to kill them…"

Sasuke looked at his subordinate sharply, and the young man went on. "Orochimaru erected a Demon's Gate. I can't get through…"

"I can," Sasuke said, and he raised his hand in the air. "_Kirin_!" he shouted, and lightning flashed into the battlefield, blinding and deafening the combatants. When their senses cleared, Sasuke was behind Juugo and the weary Dai Li agent. "Hold them off," he ordered.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted after the retreating boy. "Dammit, get back here!" He scowled at Juugo, who blocked his path. "Hey," he said. "You're shorter than I remember."

Juugo grinned, his body twisting more into his cursed state. "Yes… and you're about to be more _dead_ than I remember!" He lashed out with his massive paw, tearing Naruto's shadow clone apart. The real Naruto kicked at him from above, not so much hurting the boy as setting him up for a devastating punch from Sakura. He was knocked back while the Dai Li agent collapsed to the ground, no longer supported by the monster.

"You don't really think you alone can stop all of us," Sakura said harshly, gesturing to her three teammates and the six Kyoshi Kunoichi.

"Nah," Toshiro wheezed from the ground. "But I brought reinforcements." He snapped and a dozen Dai Li popped out of the ground.

"Monkey feathers," Naruto cursed.

- - -

Orochimaru laughed, half his charred face hanging from his chin, revealing an unfamiliar young man's face beneath. His barmy cackle drove Mai on as she pinned the snake ninja to the Demon Gate, thrusting her knives into his torso mechanically again and again.

"Why… won't… you… die?" she said. She stabbed the knives into his palms and then kept pinning various limbs to the gate. She stepped away, leaving Orochimaru's body to hang lifelessly, though he still chuckled weakly. "If you won't die, you can just hang out."

"Insolent little girl…" Orochimaru hissed. "If my body weren't rejecting me, I would have killed you without a thought. You should be honored. Before you die you will see my perfect form." He opened his mouth and his bloodied body began to writhe and deflate as a white blur shot from the ninja's throat.

Mai turned as the thing thumped behind her, and she gaped at the slithering sight before her.

"Mai…" Azula gasped from her position on the floor. "What… what is it?"

"It looks like," Mai said, stunned. "A giant white snake… made of a bunch of little white snakes."

Azula squinted at the beast. "A giant googlesnake?" She shook her head. "Good. I thought I might be drunk."

"Well, you're definitely out of it," Mai said. "But this is no hallucination." She drew more knives from her sleeves and threw them at the beast. The snake hissed at her and lashed out, knocking her aside. Mai scrambled away as the beast turned to Azula.

The Fire Princess moved her arms in an arc as the serpent turned. Electric energy arced around her body, but it was wild and uncontrolled as opposed to her usual execution. She touched her fingertips and then thrust her right hand out toward Orochimaru, but instead of lightning, a powerful explosion issued from her fingers, knocking her back.

Orochimaru laughed. "How does it feel to no longer be in control? I imagine all that chakra energy flooding your body must be quite disconcerting!" The serpentine face eased closer to the girl, but her head lolled; she was unconscious. The snake snarled, cursing his misfortune. Even this body would fail him, and very soon. He would have been happy to take her body as Sasuke was not currently at hand, though he didn't know how the beast within her would react.

He turned toward Mai, who was now regrouping for another attack. He couldn't take another barrage of those knives. He only had minutes to jump bodies. She would have to do. His essence reached out and enveloped her. His very soul pierced her and suddenly their consciousnesses were on the same plane. Mai could feel tendrils creeping up her very spirit.

The Demon's Gate began to glow and it disappeared back from whence it was summoned. Sasuke leaped onto the monster that was his master and drove his sword through the top of his head. He twisted as the serpent howled in pain. "Chidori nagashi!" he announced before sending a current of electricity down the blade and into Orochimaru's brain. The snake spasmed and after several seconds of searing neurons, the body slumped to the ground.

Mai shivered on the ground, having broken out in a cold sweat. She couldn't quite articulate what had happened, but it was a breach of the highest degree. She could almost feel those snakes still squiggling underneath her skin.

"Are you alright?" Sasuke asked the knife thrower.

"Ye… yes…" Mai said weakly after a moment.

Sasuke strode to Azula and picked her up in his arms and came back toward Mai. "She tried to assassinate Orochimaru…"

"She… told me about it just before she tried it," Mai said. "She said some other guy was going to assassinate you. I guess it's a good thing he failed."

Sasuke snorted. "The fool didn't even try. Naruto has that effect on people. Makes them weak. Regardless, she should have waited. I was planning on killing Orochimaru after my nap."

- - -

Naruto locked arms with Sakura, spinning her around to kick a Dai Li while he punched a jet of air at another. He ducked, she clocked an enemy. She sidestepped while he uppercut.

Sai noted the two while he summoned several ink snakes to entangle his foes. He was beginning to understand this concept of "teamwork." Those two, in spite of the fact that they hadn't seen each other for almost three years, seemed to fight as one being. It was really rather impressive, especially given Naruto's previous ineptitude.

Yamato attempted to clear a path through the oncoming Dai Li. More ninja from the Rock were now arriving, as well as some Sound ninja. They seemed wary of each other, but it was clear both parties were interested in expelling them more than they were distrustful of each other. He led his team and the Kyoshi warriors to a retreat.

Oneh, the other jounin in the Kyoshi Kunoichi group, and her team took the front defensive position as they made their retreat. One of the kunoichi was grabbed by the Dai Li's cuffs, and as another went to help, her feet were stuck to the ground by carrion honey spat from the summoned buzzard-wasp of one of the Rock ninja.

"Keep going!" Oneh said to her remaining student as she moved to help her teammates. "They'll be okay. Going after them will just get you caught, too." She was cut off when hands emerged from the ground and pulled her under. "Keep going!" she shouted.

"We've gotta get outta here fast," Naruto said, noting the Rock ninja flanking them. He breathed deeply, letting his chakras flow. He felt the pressure of the Kyuubi's power within him, but he hesitated at calling it out. After he had recovered from his four-tail rampage, Yamato had told him how close he came to hurting Sakura in his frenzied state. He didn't want to use that power if he didn't have to. He bit his thumb and performed summoning jutsu, thrusting his hand to the ground. A cloud of smoke obscured the group and they found themselves all standing on a large toad.

The toad lashed out with its tongue, whipping the enemy ninja out of the way. Then its tongue stuck onto the Kyoshi Kunoichi who had been stuck in the honey and pulled her out.

Seeing this, Sai leaped from the frog, summoning a large ink bird, with which he soared into the mass of ninja, and then he cut the chains from the other kunoichi and pulled her up with him. He and the girl flew into the sky as Naruto's summoned toad followed with a powerful leap.

- - -

Guru Pathik sat cross legged in the open air on the Eastern Air Temple grounds. He heard the footsteps approaching him, but did not react. He had sensed the battle going on down below and had not reacted. He continued meditating until he heard the awkward clearing of a throat. "You have returned… Naruto."

The blond ninja bowed his head. "That's right, Guru. I… I've brought my friends. We're just here to regroup."

"And to finish your training," Pathik concluded.

"No…" Naruto said nervously. "Well… there may be a little something you can help me with… I was just thinking…"

"The dark presence within you has grown stronger," Guru Pathik said. "And you wish to rid yourself of it."

"Wow," Suki said. "This guy's more like Guru Exposition."

"Um… yeah," Naruto said.

Pathik still had not moved from his meditative position, and now remained silent for a long moment. Then he said, "I do not know if even now I can help you. But there is good reason for you to be here. It is your destiny to help bring balance to the world again. But, first, you must help bring balance to…"

"It's you!"

The Konoha ninja turned and saw a peculiar young bald monk, two dark skinned water tribes people, and a black clad rogue very familiar to them all.

"Itachi!" Yamato exclaimed, preparing to defend himself.

"That's the Avatar!" Naruto said, pointing to the bald child.

"The Avatar!" Sakura said. "That's… that's just a myth, isn't it? Like the Six Paths' Sage."

"Aw, no you didn't!" Sokka crowed. "Aang's about to get mythical on your _Fire Nation butts_!"

"Sokka!" Suki said reprovingly.

Sokka paused. "S-Suki?! What is _your_ butt doing with their _Fire Nation_ butts?"

"Because they just _saved_ our butts!" Suki said.

"Wait a minute!" Sakura said. "Can we please stop talking about butts for one second and address the issue at hand here? If you haven't noticed, there's an S-class criminal standing right in front of us. And this is the guy who made Sasuke… well…"

"A dirty traitor?" Sai finished.

"Hey, shut up!" Naruto growled at Sai. He turned back to Aang. "That guy and his organization has been hunting me and the other… 'vessels' down. They would have killed Gaara. I'm grateful for you saving him, but I can't be friends with him or anyone associated with him as long as he's a part of Akatsuki."

"They only wanted to extract the beasts because they were dangerous!" Aang countered. "They didn't know there was any other way to extract them, but now they do know. I can. I took the Ichibi out of Gaara, I took the Yonbi out of a Rock ninja, and I can take the Kyuubi out of you without hurting you one bit. You know the power of that beast makes you unstable. I saw you in that ghost town. You were out of control. You don't know if you might hurt someone close to you."

Naruto scowled, remembering having been told of his close call with Sakura when he had gone into his four-tail mode. "That's why I'm here. I want to control it. But… that still doesn't excuse Itachi's past crimes."

"I'm willing to give myself up," Itachi said, suddenly.

"What?" Yamato said, stunned. "You surrender?" This was shocking. This was a man who was able to beat his senior, Kakashi, perhaps the strongest shinobi of his generation. And he was going to surrender to a few chuunin and jounin of lesser capability when he had the Avatar willing to fight for him as well?

"No, Itachi, you don't have to do this!" Aang said. "I know you must have done some things in your past, but I know you're a good person."

"No, Aang," Itachi said. "Would you seek to evade responsibility for your past actions just because you are a 'good person,' now? I don't fear justice."

"That's… great," Naruto said.

"I only ask that you allow me to help you find Sasuke. When he knows that I am in your custody, he will have no reason not to return to your village," Itachi said. "I will make an oath to help you in any way that I can until you have relinquished me to my little brother."

"What?" Aang said, shocked. "You can't. Sasuke wants to kill you."

"How can we trust what you say?" Yamato said.

Itachi bit his thumb and began to draw symbols on his right arm, ending with a large circular inscription on his palm. "You recognize this symbol, don't you? It's a sealing jutsu that was developed in Root as insurance that a shinobi could not break his word."

"You would do that," Yamato said. He turned to Sai. "Well, then, make the corresponding mark on Naruto's arm, please."

Sai grabbed Naruto's right wrist and pricked his finger with a kunai. "Hey!" Naruto said as the other shinobi mixed the blood into his ink. With a brush the Root operative began to paint the symbols on Naruto's arm, ending in a mark on his palm. The Akatsuki member held out his hand and wiped blood across the mark on his palm, prompting Naruto to do the same. The symbols began to glow with chakra energy and then they clasped palms, causing the sealing marks to be pulled together between the palms. The two separated and were left with mirror marks on their hands.

"Now," Sai said. "If Itachi breaks his previously spoken oath, he'll lose that arm of his, and the rest of him won't be in much better shape."

"Alright…" Naruto said. "I guess we can trust you, then."

"Trust us?" Sokka said. "What about us trusting you?"

"Whatever feelings you may have about the Fire Nation," Yamato said. "We aren't apart of them. Our village lies within their borders and their well-being is important for our own, but under treaty we and all the other great shinobi villages are legally neutral in the war."

"I'm still skeptical," Sokka said.

Katara nudged her brother. "Come on, have a little optimism once in awhile. After all, Suki seems to trust them."

"Suki…" Sokka said, momentarily losing himself gazing at the Kyoshi Kunoichi they had met so long ago on their journey to the North Pole… before he'd met… He shook his head. "Y-yeah… that's right. What are you doing here, Suki? Shouldn't you be back at Kyoshi Island?"

Suki grinned. "You inspired us, Sokka."

"She really means you inspired _her_," Said Oneh slyly.

Suki's makeup didn't fully hide the reddening of her cheeks. "The great villages may not be able to interfere in the war, but the Kyoshi Kunoichi are merely an independent clan, and _we_ felt it was _our_ duty to help protect the Earth Kingdom." She turned to the Konoha ninja."We met these guys while they were trying to take down an S-class criminal named Orochimaru."

"That's the name of Itachi's brother's master, right?" Aang said.

"That's right," Suki said. "And, let me tell you, as a person who's only read about some of this guy's atrocities, I'd team up with the Fire Lord, himself, if it meant taking him down."

"You won't have to worry about that," Katara said. "Princess Azula of the Fire Nation is working with him, so I think it's a safe bet the Fire Lord and Orochimaru are good friends."

"I'd heard," Suki said, casting a glance to Sai.

"At least that angry ponytail guy hasn't shown up with them," Sokka mused.

"Who?" Sakura asked, perplexed.

"The guy with the crispy face. Prince of the Fire Nation. Zucchini or something like that," Sokka said.

"Oh… yeah," Naruto said, shifty eyed. "I don't think you'll have to worry about him showing up with _them_…"

- - -

"Sasuke…" Azula moaned. "What…?"

"Shh," Sasuke said softly, gazing down on her from the darkness over her bed. "You'll be fine."

"You've chained me to the bed," Azula said, pulling on the cuff on her wrist.

"It's for your own safety, Azula," Sasuke said. "Your chakras are very unbalanced due to the breaking of the seal. The Nibi's energy is flowing freely into you. It may be difficult for you to control."

"You don't know just how in control I can be," Azula said coldly.

"Don't worry," Sasuke said. "Here in the shadow of the earth you will be safe. I can handle things from here." The door behind him creaked open, torchlight flooding in and blinding the princess momentarily, but before her eyes could adjust she was in darkness again.

But she still sensed a presence hovering over her. "Rather rude, isn't he?"

"Root ninja!" Azula said. "You… you failed your mission."

"I chose not to carry it out," Sai said. "It was selfish of me, perhaps, but I needed to study this… bond. I believe I've remembered how I had intended to finish it, now…"

"What are you yammering on about?" Azula said.

"You and I aren't so different," Sai said.

"Ridiculous," Azula spat. "You were made to follow orders; I was born to command."

"And yet neither of us knows what it's like to have a brother," Sai said.

"I _have_ a brother," Azula said. "Moody, big scar on his face, you know him."

"I do," Sai said. "And I know exactly where he is. But biological ties wasn't what I was referring to. I meant… the bonds of brotherhood. What is it to truly care about someone over yourself?"

"No one cares about anyone other than themselves," Azula said derisively. "It's only self interest and fear that keeps any ruler's subjects in line."

"Is that how you feel for your father?" Sai asked.

"I'd kill him if it meant more power," Azula said. "Maybe one day I will, but for now I need him."

"And your mother?"

Flame shot from Azula's nostrils. "Is there a point to all this?"

"I'll need to make a report to Danzou," Sai said. "Though I'm not sure how to put it."

"Well…" Azula said in a faux sweet voice. "The daughter of the Fire Nation head of state _has_ been captured by a man who will now be in command of not only the Sound but also the Rock ninja, and is probably at this moment putting _my_ plan into motion to take over Ba Sing Se."

Sai mulled it over. "… I suppose I _am_ obligated to reporting something to that effect, though I must say…"

"Don't bother trying to cover anything up," Azula said. "You know what this means, and you know what it means for your village. A message has already been sent out. My father and your master will know everything."

"…" Sai was silent for a long moment. "You are a singular lady." With that his form liquefied, and Azula was left with nothing but the smell of ink.

- - -

Tsunade stormed toward her office. "Damn that Jiraiya, taking off like that without a—"

"Uhhh, Lady Tsunade," her assistant, Shizune, stammered.

"—Just like a man to…" Tsunade slowed as she entered her sanctuary. "Who's in my chair?"

The chair swiveled to reveal a scarred and bandaged figure familiar to the slug kunoichi. "Ah, Princess Tsunade, I'd wondered if you would ever come."

"I don't know if you'd been made aware," Tsunade said with restraint. "But around these parts I'm the _Queen_."

"Indeed," Danzou said mirthlessly. "I'm afraid I have some bad news, however."

"What?" Tsunade asked impatiently.

"It seems the Rock Village has broken the treaty," Danzou said with a hint of smugness.

Tsunade paused. "Come again?"

"Princess Azula, the daughter of our fine country of fire's Lord, has been taken hostage by the Iwagakure. This, in itself, is a direct act against our country's government and a blatant violation, but further, you will find that reports have been intercepted with the Earth Shadow's own seal to the effect of plans to take over the Earth Kingdom Army by the Rock Village. We already know the King is practically a puppet to the Earth Shadow. But until now it's been harmless, as Ba Sing Se's military leadership as been separate from the largely ceremonial head of state, and their efforts were completely internal. This is going too far, however."

"Danzou," Tsunade said. "We can't take any rash action."

"Are you telling me that in spite of this blatant violation and act of war, you would hesitate to strike at our enemies?" Danzou said indignantly, righteous anger building within him. "Well, it's good that in times like these yours is not the single authority to which I may appeal."

"Be quiet, old man," Tsunade said icily. "I _am_ the final authority here."

"Let's not be so hasty in making that determination," a slithery voice said behind her. She turned and stared into a cruel pair of golden eyes. "I'm afraid in matters such as these, I am as ruler of this country _required_ to take the reigns of such a delicate diplomatic situation."

Tsunade turned to the scarred old man in her chair. "Danzou, you…"

"Don't blame him, m'Lady Hokage," Fire Lord Ozai said, striding into the room. "It was, in fact, I who brought the situation to his attention."

"I am afraid, however," Danzou said, "That on my Fire Lord's order, I was forced to give notice to the other Great Shinobi Villages. They will, of course, be required to join us in our effort to root out the Rock Ninja from Ba Sing Se."

- - -

Mei was completely silent as she crouched in the shadows. She knew it wouldn't be easy. It had been attempted many times before and not one had managed to accomplish their mission, not even the Seven Swordsman. Yet he seemed so completely at ease in his chair. It wouldn't matter who the next Mizukage was, as long as he was alive that person would be susceptible to his power just as the Fourth had been. It had only been luck that Ao had been able to use his implanted Byakugan to see through the mind control.

She hardened her resolve and struck, her sword slicing clean through the back of the chair and up through the Third Hokage's chest. At the same time a bespectacled ninja descended from the ceiling and drove two swords through the front of him. After a moment they looked at each other. There had been nothing but a gasp of air and life had completely left the body.

"Choujuurou…" Mei said. "Did… we kill him?"

"I… don't know, Lady Terumii," he said. "Maybe I messed up?" He looked at the masked Water Shadow tentatively.

"Mizukage!" A scarred shinobi burst into the room shouting. "Ah…" he paused. "Lady Terumii… I hadn't realized I was… interrupting."

"No matter, Tsurugi," Mei said. "What is your news?"

"The… the Rock has broken the treaty and attacked the Fire Nation. We're making further inquiries, but it seems to be true," Tsurugi said.

"Damn," Mei said. "Just what we needed right now. Very well… if this does turn out to be true… no, even if not I still want you to find Utakata as quickly as possible. We'll need the power of his six tailed gastropod at our backs if we're going to end up in a war."

"But… Utakata was…" Tsurugi said. "He didn't agree with our ways, Lady. That's why he… left."

"Our ways are changing, Tsurugi," Mei said, turning to the corpse in the chair. "Tell him that."

"Yes," Tsurugi said with a bow. "Yes, Lady Fifth."

Mei almost smirked. It wasn't official, but as things stood it seemed she would be the next Mizukage before long. The ANBU agent left and was replaced soon after by Ao, his shark-fin hairstyle, eyepatch over his right eye, and swinging earrings distinct.

"Well, Lady Mizukage," he said with a smugness. "I'm glad you decided to have our wayward son join…"

"'Join'?" Mei asked with warning in her voice. "What are you implying? You think I need to 'join' with someone? Because I'm getting too old no one will—"

"Lady Terumii…" Ao said, his hands raised in surrender. "I didn't mean anything by it. But… I must warn you… that wasn't the Third."

"It wasn't?!" Choujuurou said frantically. "Ohhh, I _knew_ I messed up!"

"It's not you," Mei said. She turned to the corpse. "I had a feeling when he didn't put up any kind of struggle. It was a decoy… but… in that case, where could he be?"

- - -

Deidara grumbled as he dragged the unconscious three tailed beast behind him. On top of the beast, a black leather clad man with a spiral mask on sang boisterously. "Damn Sasori… had to die and leave me with… wish his damn art _had_ lasted forever if it would have kept… _Would you shut up_?!"

"I really blew the three-tails away didn't I?" the new recruit laughed. "A one hit knock out!"

"I helped, too, y'know…" Deidara grumbled. "Dammit, why did you have to be the one to replace Sasori? I wish Zetsu had never kept you as a subordinate."

The new member of Akatsuki laughed. "Tobi is a good boy!"


	20. Surprise

**Elements of War**

**Chapter 19**

**Surprise**

"The nine tailed beast's each correspond to the nine chakras of the ten-tailed beast."

"Wait a minute, Guru," Naruto said. "What about a 'ten-tailed beast'?"

"The ten-tailed beast," Pathik explained. "Was created by the first holder of the Rin'negan…"

"The Six Paths Sage, you mean?" Naruto said.

"No, that was the _last_ reincarnation…" Pathik chuckled softly to himself. "Be patient and I will explain. The first master of reincarnation began the Avatar cycle, but also created the ten-tails out of the spirit beasts he was meant to subdue. His only way of defeating them was to reincarnate all their spirits into an infant beast. Each spirit became associated with one of this beast's nine chakras."

"But aren't their only sev—"

"In humans," the guru said, holding his hand up to stop Naruto's interruption. "In other beasts it is different, especially those with a stronger connection with the spirit world, such as dragons. Six of the chakras represent a combination of the four elements the human chakras represent. There are the Sand, the White Fire, Steam, Lava, Mud, and Bubble chakras. The higher three chakras of the throat, brow, and crown are the same as in humans, and represented by the last three tailed beasts. Your nine-tailed beast is of the Thought chakra, and that is why your attempt to unlock it has caused you difficulty."

"I… see," Naruto said.

"I can tell by your face you don't," Aang said. "Your chakra isn't releasing because that's where the tailed beast _is_. It's the blockage."

"Wow," Naruto said. "So what happens if I… clear it?"

Guru Pathik rolled his eyes to the sky thoughtfully for a moment. "Hmmm… I don't really know. It's never come up before."

Naruto scowled."Well, how does telling me all that help?"

"In order to overcome a problem, one must first identify it," Guru Pathik said.

"Okay… so you've identified the problem," Naruto said. "How do we overcome it?"

"The best way," Guru Pathik said. "Would be to remove the kyuubi."

Naruto sighed. "Well. If that's all…"

"I can do it,"Aang said. "I removed the one-tailed beast and the four-tailed beast without hurting the people they possessed. I can do the same for you."

Naruto scowled. "I… I would like to be free of the fox. It's helped me before, but I know now it can be dangerous to others. I can't control it well enough. But… I don't want it falling into the hands of Akatsuki."

"They have a way to seal it," Aang said.

"I don't care!" Naruto said. "They shouldn't have control over all nine beasts. Think about it. What organization can be trusted with that kind of power, regardless of their intentions?"

"I understand…" Aang said. "I won't let Akatsuki have this one." He approached Naruto and put one hand to his head and another to his torso. He breathed deeply and concentrated all his spiritual power on the demonic aura within.

A minute passed. "Am I exorcised yet?" Naruto asked.

"Gyah!" Aang shouted. "I don't know how to do it!"

Guru Pathik nodded. "It was done before while you were in the Avatar State. In order to do it at will, it seems you will have to master the Avatar State, yourself."

"So I have to wait till _you_ finish your training before I can?" Naruto said crossly. "Great!"

"It is still possible for you to clear your Crown chakra without removing the kyuubi," Guru Pathik said. "It will just be… much more difficult. With uncertain results."

"Like…?"

"Well, clearing the chakra _could_ destroy the beast. Or it could release it from your body. Or it could kill both of you. Or… perhaps…"

"That's enough," Naruto said. "I'll do my best, but we'll need Captain Yamato to oversee us. If the fox tries to come out again, he can suppress its power."

"Help! Help, daddy!"

Cloud ninja were tossed aside as the little girl on the floor struggled. Hot flames leapt from her body. The dark skinned, blond haired Lightning Shadow turned to Fire Lord Azulon with a typically angry expression. "I told you she couldn't handle it! It takes a certain kind of inherent strength for a child to contain a tailed beast!"

Azulon scowled at the writhing form of his granddaughter. "A child of the royal blood incapable of handling a mere beast?" He turned disdainfully to his youngest son, who looked to his daughter tensely. "But it should be of no surprise coming from a weaker stock."

"This solution was proposed by you, Father," Ozai hissed with civil anger. "When you took it upon yourself to kill the Cloud girl…"

"Silence," Azulon said. "Your tone is bordering on insolence."

"We have to strengthen the seal," the Raikage said. "But it's dangerous. All that power locked up with nowhere to go… the pressure in her body could eventually kill her. Violently."

"The Nibi is coming out, now!" Ozai said. "It will kill her if we _don't_ do something…"

"Perhaps…" Azulon said. "It would be best if we simply kill her and save ourselves the trouble. Young Lu Ten will marry soon and will undoubtedly produce a more suitable host."

Azula's screams intensified as a ghostly feline face began to form over her body. Some of the cloud ninja used jutsu in an attempt to suppress the demon chakra, but it only slowed the leak. The flames still issued forth from her body, burning her flesh.

The Raikage leaped into the chaos and ripped the tunic from Azula's chest, beginning to etch new symbols around the sealing jutsu already there. "This is going to take too long… Bee! Help me out here!"

A teenaged ninja stepped up and began etching symbols into the floor around Azula. "I help you out for Yugito's sake/this sealing jutsu we will make/and after we save this girl this time/I'm gonna keep on bustin' my rhyme."

"Shut up and write!" the Raikage said. "Dammit, it's coming out too fast!"

The demon beast's form was becoming more complete and substantive now, and it yowled angrily. It fixed its empty eyes on Azulon and roared.

"I don't think it likes you," Raikage remarked. "It must remember you."

Azulon's face contorted as he watched the beast form. His fists clenched. He rose from his throne and inscribed a quick circle with his fingers. Ozai saw this and in an instant was in motion. Lightning arced from Azulon's fingers toward his granddaughter, but Ozai had already put himself between them, and the bolt struck his shoulder, launching him across the room.

"Foolish boy," Azulon said.

Raikage backed away from Azula as the Nibi's aura intensified. "I can't… can't continue! It's too strong!"

Ursa burst into the room at that moment, pushing past the guards. The young prince, Zuko, tried to push through, as well, curious as to what was going on, but his mother ordered him back, and he was more effectively barred by the guards. "What's going on?"

"Get back, Princess!" the Raikage said. "Your daughter… she's about to…"

"Get out of the way and let me kill her before we all die!" Azulon shouted at his daughter-in-law.

Ursa looked back at him murderously. "Quiet, old man!"

Azulon reared back, affronted. "I've never been spoken to in such a manner! I'll attribute it to your accursed blood, but…"

Ursa ignored him and turned to her daughter, a tinge of fear in her eyes as she stared down the demon. Her daughter was still conscious, but panicked. "Calm down, dear!"

"Mommy, I'm scared!" Azula cried. The cat laughed horrendously and the girl screamed in agony.

"Damn you, you monster!" Ursa cursed the beast.

"M-monster…?" Azula mumbled, confused.

Ursa locked eyes with her daughter. "Focus on me, Azula. Focus on my eyes. You have to control it. You must… have… control."

Azula stared into her mother's golden eyes, the flames flickering in them. The eyes turned a red hue as she relaxed, and the cat demon began to dissolve into smoke. In her mother's red left eye, she saw a dark seed sprout in the iris. And another… and a third… and…

She was staring into Sasuke's sharingan eyes, but now they faded to their normal deep, eternal black. She couldn't help but admire those eyes, so full of command and cold calculation. The eyes of true royalty. But she tore herself away from his face and heaved deeply. She was still in chains, unfortunately.

"Did… did that really happen?" Azula asked.

"I don't know," Sasuke said. "But it's one of your memories."

"So… my father knew the whole time." She clenched her fist. Her own father had kept such a great secret from her. But on the other hand… he had saved her from her grandfather. And her mother… she wouldn't think of that woman. That woman had wanted nothing to do with her, she _knew_, and she had nothing to do with that woman.

"It was best you didn't know," Sasuke said. "At the time. The vessels are always feared and hated. They become isolated because of that. You were lucky."

Azula grunted. "I was lucky, huh? I don't see it that way. I want to be feared. I'm destined to be the Fire Lord. Fear is a useful tool for a ruler."

"You're so sure of becoming Fire Lord," Sasuke said with a slight smirk. "You don't think your brother might still have a shot?"

"Zuzu?" Azula said. "You forget. He's wanted. And even if he did something amazing to get into father's good graces, like actually capturing the Avatar, I'm better than he is. I deserve it more. That's what Father cares about."

Sasuke smirked coldly. "Of course. That's how it should work." His face became impassive once more and he heaved a deep breath. "Your inability to control the Nibi is troublesome. You're missing something..."

"If that blond brat can do it, so can I!" Azula said, gritting her teeth.

"He can barely control it, and yet he has far more control than you."

"Silence. I'm far more skilled than he will ever be, and I'm of royal blood." Azula pouted. "I am missing _nothing_."

"All the skill and power in the world," he said. "Won't give you what you need to live in harmony with your tailed beast."

"Who does he think he is, telling us what we should do?"

Tsunade turned to the Lightning Shadow and said, "He is our Lord. And more than that, it is not just Ozai telling us what we must do, but the very treaty that ended the last war between our villages."

"Lady Tsunade is right," the Fifth Water Shadow said. "It is vital to the peace among our villages that we remain neutral in this war. After all, even if all the nations fall, we shinobi will remain."

Gaara remained silent, but he seemed displeased with this. The four Kage of the five great shinobi villages were now gathered to discuss the impending war on the Hidden Rock, though none was particularly keen on the idea. They had sent a message to the Earth Shadow to invite him to discuss the possibility of diplomacy, but the only response they received was a package which contained the severed head of a man with a fu manchu and a queue. Gaara had been able to confirm that this was Yondaime Tsuchikage's.

"The question now is, 'who is in command of Iwagakure?'" Yondaime Raikage said. "Are we going up against a successor? Has Sandaime taken the reigns again? Or has the Earth King finally taken over the village?"

"The Earth King," Gaara said. "Would not take control of Iwagakure..."

"You say that based on what?" the Raikage demanded.

"In any case, Ei," Tsunade interrupted. "That's not the real question. The real question is 'why?' The Fourth is dead, possibly assassinated, and suddenly the Hidden Rock joins forces with the Earth Kingdom. There may be something deeper here that we need to figure out."

"So you're saying we shouldn't go to war, now?" the Raikage said. "I agree with that, but the reasoning: I find suspect."

"That's not what I'm saying. If the Hidden Rock intend to break the treaty, then we have no choice but to go to war," Tsunade explained. "However, we must be sure of their intentions before jumping to conclusions."

"Their intention seems fairly clear," the Mizukage said. "They've responded to our request for diplomacy by sending us the head of their Kage."

Tsunade sighed. "That may be... but it could also be a misunderstanding. We need more intelligence. No matter how much the Fire Lord demands that the Hidden Leaf go to war, we must first have definitive proof..."

"And I have it."

The four Kage turned to look in astonishment as the scarred Danzou entered the room. "Hey! This is a private meeting! Kage only!"

The old man grimaced, and Tsunade knew he didn't like being so acutely reminded of the fact that he was not a Kage, himself. "I apologize Lord Raikage. I've only come at the behest of our country's Lord. I have received new intelligence concerning Iwagakure, proving that it has been taken over by rogue ninja who are openly colluding with the Earth Kingdom forces to destroy the Fire Nation."

"I don't believe it for a moment!" Raikage growled. "It's more propaganda from the Fire Lord!"

"Careful, Lord Raikage," Danzou said. "You may be part of the Lightning Country to the north ruled by a local viceroy, but that is still part of the Fire Nation."

"Owing to the genocide of the Air Monks who inhabited it previously, of course," Gaara said quietly.

"With all due respect, my young Lord Kazekage," Danzou said. "We are not here to discuss history. Allow me to demonstrate my proof." He reached his hand up to his face and adjusted his bandages.

Minutes later, the Kage reached their final decision.

"Regretfully, I must concede to the Treaty of Amegakure and declare war on Iwagakure until such time as they withdraw their support from the Earth Kingdom or any other nation in this war," Tsunade announced.

"Kirigakure concurs," the Mizukage said simply.

Clenching his fists, Gaara also spoke up. "By law, Sunagakure has no choice but to declare war as well."

The Raikage growled and grit his teeth. "I don't like this! Something doesn't feel right. I'll throw my lot into this, but I'd like to make it clear that not one of us is doing this to support the Fire Nation at all!"

"Of course," Danzou said. "The Fire Lord is only interested in keeping this war fair. After all, the odds are already against the Fire Nation as it's merely one nation against two, one being so much larger and with more vast resources." With that, he left the meeting of the Kage as they began to discuss their strategy for dealing with the Hidden Rock.

Danzou rendezvoused with the Fire Lord, who was waiting for him. "All went according to plan," he stated.

"Really?" Ozai said with a hint of skepticism. "I must say, Danzou, I would not have been convinced by such obvious forgeries and circumstantial evidence as you provided."

"My Lord," Danzou said. "I have my own special talents..."

"Or, rather," Ozai offered. "Someone else's special talents."

Danzou remained stoic. "You are shrewd, Fire Lord."

"And you are treacherous, Danzou," Ozai replied. "A trait which will assure you the title of Rokudaime Hokage very soon."

"A secret war?" the Earth King said with dismay evident in his voice. "That's crazy."

"Yes, Your Highness," Sasuke said. "But, I'm afraid that's the case. The former Kage have been keeping the war from the public for decades. Tsuchikage Azula had planned on revealing the truth, herself, but recent attacks by the Avatar's Fire Nation allies have left her indisposed."

"I can't believe I never knew," the Earth King continued, obviously shocked. "We're at war... with the Fire Nation!"

"The Council of Five have already been actively coordinating the efforts against the Fire Nation and the Avatar. Not only that, but we have reason to believe that the other four major shinobi villages have thrown their lot in against us. The Tsuchikage and the rest of Iwagakure would like to formally assist in the war effort now that we are no longer forced to keep up a masquerade here."

"But why the Earth Kingdom?"

"The same reason it's always been," Sasuke said. "Land. Resources. Money. The Earth Kingdom is richer than any other nation in all of these. It's no surprise that the Fire Nation and even the other shinobi villages covet a piece of this nation."

King Kuei was pensive for a long moment. Then, decisiveness set firmly on his face. "Very well. Inform the Council of Five that they have a new resource in their fight."

Sasuke bowed and disappeared in a pop of smoke back into the depths of Iwagakure. He was quickly joined by his allies. "Everything is going according to my plan. You all know your roles?"

"I think we got it, boss," Suigetsu said.

Mai sighed. "I guess... but why should we go along with this? What's happened to Azula? Why can't we see her?"

Sasuke looked impassively into Mai's eyes. "She's in an unstable state. Orochimaru did something to her, and it's made her dangerous. I'm the only one who can safely interact with her right now."

Mai looked skeptical, but Toph cut in. "After what that old freak did to me, I can understand what you're talking about. Azula's kind of a sour apple, but if there's anything I can do, just ask."

Sasuke nodded, and walked away.

"Um..." Toph said. "Did he...?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he forgot you're blind," Ty Lee said.

Sokka thrust his sword at Itachi, who parried with little effort. He followed it up with several slashes which were brushed off equally easily. Itachi had removed his bandages and his eyes were regaining normal function.

The water tribe boy backed up and surveyed his environment. He noticed a bright spot on Itachi's robe. He quickly realized that the spot was from his blade reflecting the setting sun, and he immediately formed an idea. He rushed Itachi in a zig zag pattern, and right before striking angled his weapon so the reflection of the sun hit Itachi in the eyes.

Itachi flinched, dazzled by the light. Sokka's blade sung as it struck at him. However, before the water tribe boy could finish his strike, an explosion rocked the temple grounds. Sokka stumbled and found Itachi's sword at his throat. "Concede."

"Alright, ya got me," Sokka said. "I almost had you, though."

Itachi regarded the boy flatly. "You show creativity and shrewdness in your fighting style. You have the potential to be a great swordsman."

"Is that how you were?"

The two turned to see Sakura standing under an archway, her arms folded and a pensive look on her face.

"With Sasuke, I mean. Did you train him like that?"

Itachi's face was unreadable as usual, but there was a hint of discomfort. "My father was often... too busy to train my younger brother. Therefore, I took that role. He had potential and it was my duty to see it fulfilled. It still is."

Sakura frowned. "So... was daddy not attentive enough as a child? Is that why you did it?"

"I'm afraid my father was quite attentive," Itachi said. "To me. I was the prodigy, you know. The heir and the one who had to be the best. Sasuke... was the backup."

Sakura bristled. "Oh, I see. The lament of the over-privileged."

Itachi smiled lightly. "I imagine your reaction would be the same no matter how I grew up. Your ire is irrelevant, however. It doesn't effect me at all."

"No, Itachi," Sokka said, stomping up to Sakura. "Listen, Ms. Cherry Hair, you may think you've got Itachi all figured out..."

"Sokka..." Itachi said in a low voice.

"But let me tell you something! This man!" He pointed dramatically at Itachi. "Is as sweet as a cabbit!"

"Please..." the Uchiha pleaded quietly.

"Have you seen this guy with Momo when he thinks no one's looking?" Sokka asked an appalled

Sakura. "Rubs his tummy while making kissy faces!"

Sakura's face twisted into one of acute discomfort. "That's... not exactly..."

"And not only that," Sokka said smugly. "I caught this guy crying at this romantic play Katara forced us to sit through."

Itachi raised his hand meekly, "I just have an eye condition..."

"Anyway, point is this guy isn't just some man eating bogeyman like you guys think he is," Sokka concluded. "I'd appreciate you lay off my teacher!"

"Uh..." Sakura said, her face flushed pink. She suddenly found that she had trouble looking the boy in the eye. "S-sorry." She spun around quickly and left, wondering to herself why her heart was beating so fast.

"Showed her," Sokka said triumphantly.

Itachi sighed and shook his head. "I think I'd have rather done without the help..."

Elsewhere in the temple, Naruto and Aang were conducting their own training. Filling the high peak of the mountain on which the temple was built were a hundred clones of Naruto, each attempting to meditate on the Crown chakra. Yamato was also there, suppressing the occasional kyuubi outbreak.

Lower down, Aang was taking a break from his own meditations by leading another group of one hundred Naruto clones in the form for the Air Scooter technique. The clones had gotten the formation of the swirling ball of air down, but the stability of the scooters left something to be desired, not to mention the occasional self maiming an overpowered scooter would cause.

"I guess I'm lucky these are only clones," Aang said after seeing one of his "students" break his legs after a failed attempt at mounting an Air Scooter. "I'm definitely going to have to refine my training techniques once I get real students."

"Planning on teaching airbending after the war is over, huh?" the real Naruto, overseeing his clones' progress, asked.

"I'd like to," Aang said. "Even if there aren't any airbenders left, the fact that there are still ninja who can use Wind Element means that the Art may not be completely lost with me."

"There's always your kids," Naruto said with a wink.

Aang blushed. "That's... not something I should really be thinking about."

"What?" Naruto said. "Just because you were born a monk doesn't mean you have to stick to the whole celibacy thing."

"It's because I'm twelve!" Aang shouted, his face tomato red. "Besides... Air Monks still... you know... had kids. Starting at sixteen for about ten years some monks and nuns were given leave to... mingle."

"Huh..." Naruto said. "You think they'd have let the Avatar out for a little fun?"

"... Probably not," Aang said. "I mean... as far as I know, no recent Air Nomad Avatar has ever had kids. At sixteen, most were too busy mastering the elements, anyway."

"Still, must be hard," Naruto said. "Especially with that hair loop girl giving you doe eyes everywhere you go."

Steam rose from Aang's head. "I-it's not like that. We're just good friends."

Naruto looked at Aang skeptically. "Really. And I guess that's why you're having such an easy time with that Crown Chakra, huh? Nothin' stopping _you_ from letting go of the material world."

"And what about you?" Aang said. "I guess that pink haired girl isn't..."

"Hey, hey," Naruto interjected. "I have a tailed beast connected to that chakra. I have an excuse!"

"Sure," Aang said.

"Listen..." Naruto said. "Sakura... I like Sakura a lot, I'll admit it. But she loves... someone else. And I made a promise to her, and that promise is more important than anything. Even though I'm really selfish inside and want her to think of me the same way... I'll protect her love with everything I have. I'll protect everyone's happiness!"

Aang looked thoughtfully at the blond shinobi. "Huh... that was... a little dramatic."

Naruto shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah, well... I can't help it. Anyway, never mind. I've been getting an idea about that Air Scooter." He dismissed his hundred clones practicing the scooter and rocked a little with the sudden exertion that washed over him.

Aang perked up at this sudden change in topic. "Oh, yeah? Let's hear it!"

Utakata oversaw the conglomeration of ninja before him and sighed. How he had been convinced to come back to Kirigakure he didn't know. It was helpful that the Yondaime and Sandaime weren't in charge, it had definitely helped that the new Water Shadow was known to him as a very progressive shinobi, and that they had literally gotten on their knees and begged. However, even that had given them a 50/50 shot. It had all come down to a whim. It had probably helped that he had the company of a fellow outcast; someone who knew how he felt.

"Don't look so grumpy, general," Fuu said coyly. "You've been given a great honor. Isn't that what you always wanted?"

"This honor is dubious, at best," Utakata said in a low voice. "Being brought back to help lead an attack on Hidden Rock isn't how I imagined my homecoming. Besides, Iwagakure has their own bijuu."

"Not as strong as us! Besides, I hear the old Four Tail was... decommissioned. And Five Tail hasn't been seen for awhile," Fuu said.

"I wouldn't put absolute faith in intelligence reports," Utakata chided.

At that time, Gaara entered Utakata's tent. "We're ready to begin operations, General Utakata."

"Thank you, Lord Wind Shadow," Utakata responded. Utakata had been pleased to discover that a former jinchuuriki was one of the Kage in command of this operation. It most likely changed nothing, practically, but it was reassuring to have someone who might understand his position in charge.

"Alright!" Fuu exclaimed. "Let's get this party started!"

Utakata rolled his eyes as they left the tent. Fuu was an outcast like him, but in many ways their personalities couldn't be more different.

Tsunade, the Fifth Fire Shadow, greeted the two jinchuuriki. "Everyone has worked quickly. Our people are infiltrating Ba Sing Se and the village beneath it. With a simultaneous attack from within and without, we should be able to topple Rock." She narrowed her eyes and stared intently at Utakata and Fuu. "We're relying on you to be our strong punch. Even though the Raikage has refused to endanger his own village's Hachibi, I believe that you can do it."

"Thank you for your faith in us, Lord Hokage," Utakata said.

"While you prepare you forces," she said to Utakata before turning to regard Fuu. "I have a request for you. Naruto, the container for kyuubi, and his team are currently stationed at the Eastern Air Temple. We need you to bring him back. With your powers of flight, you would be the quickest messenger."

Fuu looked as if she was considering it, and then smiled and said, "Sure, why not."

Jiraiya's body cooled next to Pein's Animal realm. Pein's other five bodies were already welcoming a new Animal realm into the world, the body of a female from Jiraiya's past. "He figured it out... toward the end."

"It's of no consequence, of course. He's dead."

"And even if he managed to send a message, it will do no good."

"His machinations are coming to fruition."

"The remaining containers will gather soon."

The female Animal realm rose. "We will have the ultimate weapon with which to raise the veil of pain and death from this world."

Sasuke reeled from the chain strike to his cheek. Even with the advantage of the sharingan, his opponent was a match for him, with skills and physical ability exceeding his own by far. Fortunately, he wasn't alone.

Suigetsu harried the red clad Dai Li agent with heavy sword strikes while his subordinate Dai Li surrounded him, maneuvering to bind him with their own chains. Finally, they incapacitated him, the Dai Li holding him down with their bonds while Suigetsu held his huge blade to the red Dai Li's throat.

"You're as powerful as I was led to believe. More so, Han," Sasuke gasped, wiping the blood gushing down his face. "Will you fight for the new Tsuchikage?"

Han's expression beneath his mask was hidden, but it was clear he wasn't impressed. "I was candidate for Tsuchikage under Third, until Fourth betrayed us and locked him away. Knowing Long Feng would tolerate no rivals, I've stayed out of the way, unlike that old monkey. Why should you want me? And why should I trust you enough to go back?"

"Understandable. The new Earth Shadow is one of your kind, but she cannot yet control her tailed beast. You have control of the Five-tailed Whale-horse unparalleled by any current container save, perhaps, Hachibi, if rumors are true. We would be in your debt."

Han seemed to consider this. "Perhaps. But the question remains: why should I submit to a whelp Tsuchikage and her young, inexperienced lieutenant?" With that, five energy tails exploded from him, breaking his chains, as his whale-horse cloak wrapped him in a protective sheath. He galloped toward Sasuke, screeching.

The sharingan activated and the young Uchiha projected his will into the Gobi. With great exertion, he overwhelmed the whale-horse within Han, forcing the cloak back.

Han found himself back in his normal state, the Sound ninja's sword to hid throat. He considered it, and right off the top of his head he could think of twenty different techniques he could use to reverse the situation. However, he chose none of those options. Instead, he laughed. It seems what they say about the Uchiha is correct. I am impressed."

"So...?" Sasuke said curiously.

"So," the Dai Li commander said. "Let's meet our Fifth Earth Shadow."

The attack began without much warning. There was enough, however. Though her combat ability was hindered by the massive imbalance the newly unleashed Nibi caused, her cold, analytical mind could still make sense of the various reports she received. When the surprise attack came, the Rock ninja were ready. Some of the opposing assassins were successful, but most of the Rock ninja were able to successfully repel the attack. The use of the Earth Kingdom soldiers, whom the ninja were forbidden to harm unless directly threatened, made Iwagakure's defense complete.

The Dai Li commander, Han, had been suitably impressed with this Earth Shadow as well as her bodyguard Sound ninja. With the sneak attack successfully averted, all the four other villages could rely on was a brute strength attack. That would make up for the difference in numbers quite drastically.

Han was overseeing the combat at that time. The sensors could gather the information quickly, and the battle was reproduced on a scale model of the battlefield with earthbending.

The first group to infiltrate from the outside was a group of Cloud shinobi. Fitting. They were as fast as the province of their namesake. While his ninja and the Earth Kingdom soldiers scrambled to contain them, the heavy forces from Konohagakure hit.

Azula looked appraisingly at Han as he coordinated the Iwagakure forces. Sasuke was, in turn, receiving reports from both Han and the Council of Five and doing an exemplary job of coordinating their efforts. The princess imagined that if these two had been in charge of the Fire Nation forces one hundred years earlier, the world would belong to the Fire Nation today. Of course, she was ultimately responsible for the success or failure of this skirmish. After all, her father was still counting on her to keep his plans on track.

Close to the front lines, Hinata and her team came across Ty Lee, who had just downed two teams of Cloud ninja single handedly. The Fire Nation girl turned with a bright smile on her face.

"Oh, hello," she said. "We're going to have all kinds of fu..."

"You're with Iwagakure?" Kiba growled, noting her Dai Li outfit.

"You're one of the Hyuuga, right?" Ty Lee said, her voice going cold. "Main branch?"

"Y-yes..." Hinata said. "How did...?"

"You people killed my master," Ty Lee said, voice cracking. "I watched the head of the Hyuuga clan torture Master Hitsurugi before killing him. I'm going to do the same to you!"

Hinata's teammates rushed to protect Hinata as Ty Lee charged, an uncharacteristic glint of murder in her eyes. She was dangerous normally, but as flashes of the old blind man who had taught her independence went through her head, she brutally attacked her opponents' vita' points, shutting down their chakra flow in an instant before striking like a snake at Hinata.

The Hyuuga princess, the veins around her eyes bulging, blocked the Fire Nation girl's fingers. They exchanged blows swiftly, Hinata a formidable challenge for Ty Lee. But while Hinata managed to strike a few good hits and weaken Ty Lee's chakra flow, the dangerous lady's superior flexibility and knowledge of her anatomy meant that she could easily avoid decisive strikes while delivering more of her own. After about thirty seconds of furious motion, Hinata collapsed to her knees.

"Now..." Ty Lee said, her eyes watering and voice quavering. I'll make sure the main branch suffers like I have." She raised her hand for a lethal strike, but then leaped into the air as several long, pointy weapons embedded themselves where she had stood.

"You'll not touch Lady Hinata," said Neji, as his teammates stood to his side, Tenten rolling up thew weapons scroll she'd just used.

Ty Lee landed a distance away. "You're from the branch family, like my master, right? Why would you...?" She trailed off. "Brother Rock?"

"Little sister Ty!" Rock Lee said with shock. "What are you doing with the Rock ninja?"

Ty Lee laughed, her murderous mood suddenly disappearing. "I know. It seems like you'd fit in better, right?"

"N-no," Rock Lee said. "I mean... we're from the Fire Nation..."

"Style's very Earth Kingdom," Neji said.

"We're ones to talk..." Tenten said.

"This doesn't matter," Neji said. "If she's from our country, she's working for Iwagakure now. Look, she has the uniform of tye Dai Li Black Ops and attacked Lady Hinata and her team."

"I don't understand," Ty Lee said. "After all the main family has done to the branch, why not just let me take care of her. Do you love her or something?"

Neji fidgeted uncomfortably. "She's... my sister."

"She'll tire of you or you'll displease her eventually, and then it's just one..." her hand came up. "little..." she formed a familiar seal.

Neji's eyes narrowed. "Even if you're kin to Rock Lee, you're not of the Leaf, and certainly not of the Hyuuga. That knowledge is forbidden!" He settled into a fighting stance and his byakugan activated. "You're within range of my Hakke Rokujuuyonshou!"

Ty Lee smiled. "No. You're within range of MY Hakke Hyakunijuuhachishou."

"Impossible," Neji scoffed. "No one without an exceptional byakugan..."

"Be quiet!" Ty Lee shouted. "I'll show you what my master taught me!" She began to perform the technique of the 128 Palms of the Hand as Neji mirrored her movements. Their fingers dueled each other as they struggled to hit their tenketsu.

Neji was shocked to feel the first few hits connect, and Ty Lee masterfully blocked his tenketsu. His own strikes connected, but at the moment of impact, as if she knew instinctively where and when he would strike, and her body twisted fluidly and sinuously, deflecting his attacks enough that he couldn't quite shut down her tenketsu. He used his own bloodline ability to expel chakra from his tenketsu to stop her attack, knowing it would be useless to continue. The wave of chakra energy exploded outward and knocked Ty Lee into the air, where she performed a back flip and landed on her feet.

"Ichigekishin," Ty Lee observed. "Desperate of you. Are you finally taking me seriously?"

"Wow, sis, that was amazing!" Rock Lee said.

"Don't compliment the enemy!" Neji scolded his teammate. He turned to Ty Lee and frowned. "You're dangerous."

"I hear that a lot," Ty Lee said coyly. "And you're cute. I bet you hear that a lot, too." She crouched, ready to attack again.

Neji readied himself, knowing that it was a more even match than he'd thought.

"Neji, we've got your back," Tenten said. "Don't we, Lee!"

Rock Lee jumped. "Oh... yeah, yeah."

"No," Neji said. "This is now a Hyuuga clan concern. I don't want you two involved."

"Don't be such a stubborn ass!" Tenten growled, unleashing a scrollful of weaponry at Ty Lee.

"You heard the kid!" Toshiro interrupted suddenly, countering the weapons with his own barrage of kunai. He and two of his former students, now jounin, stood before Ty Lee.

"Alright!" Rock Lee said with a grin. He leaped into the fray, taking on Toshiro one on one while Tenten fought the two jounin.

Ty Lee and Neji continued to maneuver around each other, Neji keeping Ty Lee on her toes with his hakke kuushou air blast. When she got too close, he used his hakkeshou kaiten spinning technique to keep her back.

"You can't beat a full blooded Hyuuga!" Neji said, pushing her back with his air blasts. "Even if you have the techniques, you don't have a Hyuuga's talent!"

"You're right!" Ty Lee conceded. "But there are things you can't do on talent alone." She held out a hand, in which she handled two glass spheres filled with liquid. She dropped them and they shattered on the ground, and the liquid began to vaporize instantly into a thick yellow gas.

"Gas?" Neji laughed incredulously. "My white eyes can pierce stone. What is gas to...?" He gasped as the gas engulfed him. His throat was burning and his all encompassing vision blurred.

"Poison gas," Ty Lee said. She had wrapped her mouth and nose with a wet cloth, blocking out most of the respiratory effects. "You really have an ego problem, don't you? Did you really think with all I know about your clan, I wouldn't know how to incapacitate you? And you just walked right into it."

"You... you can't... see... either!" Neji said between coughs. "You're... helpless!"

Ty Lee giggled. "My master was Hitsurugi! Before he was killed by your grandfather-his own brother!-he had his eyes stolen by a joint Mist and Rock ninja ambush in the last ninja war. He was a master of your techniques... a branch family prodigy, just like you, and he spent almost two decades blind and on the run from you Hyuuga trying to dispose of the evidence." She smiled underneath her cloth mask. "How important do you think sight is to me? Oh, by the way... you're in range."

Neji jerked back, but he felt the girl's iron-hard fingers dig into his flesh, precise streams of energy flooding his tenketsu, blocking his chakra flow. He couldn't dodge, and he couldn't counterattack. His eyes had been his strength; what he could always count on.

They failed him, now. His tenketsu were completely blocked and his organs badly damaged, besides. The gas was already disappating, and he could see the blurry outline of Ty Lee standing over him, palm reared back to strike.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you," Ty Lee said. "You can't help what the main family does."

A torrent of water struck both Neji and Ty Lee, though the latter twisted her body a moment before the attack struck, lessening the impact.

"Never thought I'd see a normal human beat a Hyuuga one-on-one," Ao said jovially, as he adjusted the eyepatch over his right eye. "Remember, Toshiro? It took both of our teams to take that Hyuuga down in the last war. We split the spoils back then, even though he escaped."

Toshiro let Rock Lee's limp body crumple to the ground. "I remember."

"This time, it looks like we're on opposing sides," Ao said.

"Well, that girl there does hold a grudge toward the Hyuuga," Toshiro said. "Surely two byakugan would be better than one... and we can always say Ty Lee killed him."

"Hold it," Ty Lee said, rising from the ground. "Who said I would agree to that?"

"That's right," Tenten said, the two jounin laying prone at the end of a huge column-like pole. "I haven't given my approval to that plan."

Toshiro eyed the enemy kunoichi warily. "Impressive work beating my students, but you've been injured badly."

"Rock Lee did a number on you, as well," Tenten said.

"She's right," Ao said. "I hate to say it, but we'll have to be enemies for now, Toshiro."

"Very well," Toshiro said with a grin. "Let's begin."

At the same time, Utakata was leading the main force of shinobi from Mist and Sand. His bubbles floated idly around him, seemingly harmless to those who didn't realize the shinobi's power to contain super condensed air within the thin skin of water. The smallest disturbance would cause the skin to break, and a concussive force as great as any bomb's would render an attacker incapacitated.

Several shinobi found out the devastating effects of Utakata's techniques the hard way. In spite of the struggle, this main force was managing to penetrate deep into enemy territory. It wasn't until they were practically on the Tsuchikage's doorstep that they finally ran into a problem.

"You must be Roushi," Utakata said calmly as his main force was nearly decimated by a sudden surge of magma, with an old man at the center of the technique.

"'S right," Roushi said. "Old Han's come back for this fight, so I figured I'd get involved, too."

"For a container of the yonbi, that attack was pretty weak," Utakata said.

Roushi looked uncomfortable. "You'll find my lava techniques formidable just the same."

Utakata's demon slug cloak enveloped him and he smirked. "It will be interesting to see which is stronger: the solid ambition of your combined fire and earth elements or the spiritual calm of my combined water and air elements."

"We'll see," Roushi agreed. With that, their combat was joined.

In the rear, Tsunade cursed. "This isn't going well for us."

"We're making progress," Gaara said reassuringly. "In spite of our failure to surprise our enemy, we're making steady if slow progress."

"And taking heavy losses," Tsunade said. "I hate to put him in danger, but we need the kyuubi's power. We need Naruto."

Gaara nodded. "Naruto will be here. We can count on him."

Terumii Mei scoffed. "If Utakata can't handle it, I doubt some green jinchuuriki will. I place my faith in our village's container."

"Still," Tsunade said. "The addition of Naruto—not to mention Fuu—will greatly swing the fortunes of this fight in our favor. We don't want this turning into an all out war."

Fuu hovered over the temple grounds, her wings buzzing furiously to keep her aloft. She could feel the power of the kyuubi in the air. Her shichibi was urging her to either attack the source of that evil energy or flee. She ignored it and kept going forward.

Before her was an interesting sight. Several kunoichi from Kyoshi island seemed to be training with a masked man who wore a Leaf insignia in the courtyard. An old man watched them while drinking tea. A pale shinobi and a darker skinned boy in water tribe blue were painting with a man in an Akatsuki robe looking over them. The water tribe boy seemed to be having more trouble with the task than the shinobi. Higher up, however, she could see scores of boys training.

At first she assumed they were simply boys from two different schools or groups, because one group wore orange and yellow monk's robes while the other wore identical black and orange clothing. However, upon closer examination, she realized that they were, in fact, just two boys with at least a hundred clones.

A large group of them seemed to be training with some kind of wind technique. They were spinning chakra and wind around and around between their palms, the monk's clones providing the wind while the other kid's clones provided the chakra energy. A smaller group seemed to be meditating. A shinobi—young, though probably old enough to be a jounin—with black hair and protective headgear was among that latter group, watching over them, as well as a thin old man wearing way too little for Fuu's tastes.

Fuu landed in the midst of this group, and the jounin glanced at her. "I hadn't expected another jinchuuriki to join us."

"I'm here for the kyuubi kid," Fuu said. "Leaf, Cloud, Mist, and Sand have joined forces to discipline Rock for joining forces with the Earth Kingdom."

The original Naruto rose from his meditation. "You mean 'the Fire Nation,' right?"

Fuu paused. "No... I'm pretty sure I said 'the Earth Kingdom.'"

"That doesn't make sense," Yamato said. "Azula, the princess of the Fire Nation, was made the Tsuchikage, though it was through deception. We've been training to help the Avatar remove her."

"The Avatar, eh?" Fuu said, looking toward the tattooed boy. "Hmm... well, anyway, you really should have made that report, because from what I hear, the Fire Lord himself is the one who was pushing for this kind of action. Of course, we had little choice given the treaty..."

"The Fire Lord," Aang shouted, springing up. His clones continued to meditate, but their unrest was noticeable, as well. "This must be part of some plan to use the ninja villages to destroy Ba Sing Se for him. You're all being played!"

"The report was made," Yamato said. "But... it would have gone through Danzo. I can't believe he would deceive the Hokage and Leaf this way, but... then again, he was always unscrupulous when it came to what he perceived to be the village's interests."

"If that's true, you should definitely come with me," Fuu said. "They'll have already begun the attack. We were supposed to be back up in case we ran into trouble."

"Aang," Pathik said. "You must complete your training. If you go now, your final chakra will be locked, and you won't be able to enter the Avatar State at all."

"But..." Aang started. "If I stay it could mean the end of the war in the Fire Nation's favor. What good am I even as a fully realized Avatar if that happens?"

"You are very close," Pathik said. "You just need to take the final step to unlock your chakra."

"Wait, wait, wait," Naruto said. "What about me? No 'don't go, Naruto, your training is not yet complete,' for me?"

Pathik grinned at the boy. "Oh, no. _Your_ training is complete. There is nothing you can do now to unblock your chakra. It is the blockage, itself, whose training is not complete."

"Are you seriously telling me that the fox is the one who should be meditating?" Naruto asked glumly.

"That's right," Pathik said.

"Avatar," Itachi said, walking into the training area. "You should stay. Naruto and everyone else can handle things for awhile. I will help you achieve control over your Avatar State."

"What?" Aang said. "Itachi, not you too!"

Fuu raised an eyebrow. "So... we're really _not_ freaking out right now that an Akatsuki is in our midst?"

"It's fine," Naruto said. "He can't harm me. He made a promise."

"Which can be broken," Fuu said.

"Then he'd lose an arm," Naruto said, gesturing toward the older ninja, who held up his sealed arm.

"Ooh," Fuu said, recognizing the technique. "Well, fine, we should head off quickly, though."

Aang looked pensive.

"I can make another promise," Itachi said to Aang, and held up his index finger. "One hour. Within one hour after everyone leaves, I can unlock that last chakra."

Aang sighed. "Alright. One hour for ultimate power. I suppose I can do that."

"Then let's get going," Naruto said, letting his clones evaporate in a puff of smoke. He wobbled a bit from the sudden influx of experience and strain, but remained upright. "I think I've got that new technique down."

Aang dissolved his clones as well. "Me, too. Should be fun to try it out on Azula or Sasuke."

Naruto nodded. "That's right."

Fuu cocked her head. "Did... did someone seriously teach the Avatar, of all people, the kage bunshin?"

She was known to the members of the village as Madame Shijimi. To a few trusted souls she was also known as the Fire Lord's wife, and she meant to keep it as few as possible. Though it did seem that in a village of ninja, it was more difficult than she thought to keep that little tidbit a secret. It seemed that ninja were occasionally a little more chatty with each other than one would like. Even some of the kids knew she was the Fire Lord's wife, even if they didn't know her real name.

At this moment, she was skulking along the dark alley near the main offices of the Hokage and her staff. The drapes were drawn almost closed in one of the offices, but she had positioned herself in just the right place that she could see _his_ lips. They were moving. They were saying treacherous, murderous things, just like she had years ago. And Madame Shijimi was very good at lip reading.

"'Take over the village,'" Shijimi whispered to herself. "Danzou? He's going to be installed as Hokage? Dammit!"

"Madame Shijimi," a voice said from behind her. "I'm afraid the Fire Lord would not take kindly to being spied upon."

"But you would know that, wouldn't you?" said another voice.

Shijimi turned around and glowered at the shinobi behind her. They were ANBU. A Yamanaka and an Aburame clan, respectively. "You're going to tell him about this, boys?"

"No," the one she knew to go by "Fuu" Yamanaka said. "The Third Hokage made it clear that we were to offer you protection from the Fire Lord. After all, your family was once one of us."

"However," said the Aburame known as "Torune" continued. "We cannot allow you to interfere with Lord Danzou's plan."

"Ah," Shijimi said, lowering her eyes. "Well... an old lady knows when she's beaten."

"I'm glad you won't make this hard on—"

Shijimi suddenly spewed forth a torrent of flame, causing the two to dodge out of the way. She then leaped with surprising grace into the air away from her discoverers.

Fuu snorted and made a hand seal and performed the shintenshin no jutsu on the retreating figure. Shijimi paused in midair and landed, turning around and coming back to the ANBU ninja. "Well," Fuu said from Shijimi's body. "She wasn't as much trouble as I thought."

Torune bound Shijimi and then Fuu returned to his own body. Shijimi blinked and smiled. "Oh, you got me. Too bad, though..."

The ANBU smirked from behind their masks.

"You got the wrong me."

Fuu gasped as Shijimi's body disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Kage bunshin," Torune said. "Imagine that."

"Well..." Fuu said. "I'm not writing this report."


End file.
